How many of us have been guilty of some degree of aggressive
driving? Certainly we all share the pressure of trying to live our lives as
well as we can. This involves meeting goals, making deals, fulfilling promises,
responsibilities, and obligations – often for things having to do with social
relationships and not because of our own desires. Ugh!
We have driven faster than might be completely safe because
we had a late start and needed to be somewhere by a given time. We have driven
when we were tired, stressed, or distracted by a plethora of possibilities. We
have driven because there was nobody else to do it.
All of these circumstances involve calculated risk. Probably
more have been bad bets than we realize and luck has been a bigger factor than we
think. Once we get beyond these challenges, we do not spend any time in retrospective
analysis. We forget about them.
These are the factors that contribute to road rage.
Statistics are getting worse and we need to increase our
awareness:
- Two-thirds of all traffic fatalities are caused by aggressive driving
- More than a third of aggressive driving incidents involve a fireare
- Teenage boys (under 19) are most likely involved
- Half of drivers on the receiving end of aggressive driving incidents admit to aggressive responses
- Every year over 30 murders and nearly 2,000 injuries are caused by road rage
(Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
