Road rage can happen to anybody at anytime and can vary from an aggressive gesture or word to a full on physical attack.
Over the past few years, the so called “road rage” syndrome has developed and we hear an increasing amount about it. However, road rage is nothing new; it has been around us for many a year, probably since the beginning of road transport.
It’s become all too common these days. Recent polls indicate that 50 percent of U.S. drivers either guilty of expressing road rage or are target of road rage. Driving has become increasingly personalized. Drivers feel actions on the road relate to them personally rather than just taking an error in stride. Road rage is the root of many accidents and injuries due to overreaction and personalization of driving situations. The U.S. Highway Safety Office reports that each year, tens of thousands of automobile accidents are correlated with aggressive road rage driving.
If something happens to make you believe that you could become the focus of another driver’s rage, here are a few things you can do to protect yourself.
For one, stay in your car and if enraged drive gets out of their vehicle and approaches your roll up windows and lock doors. Stay as calm as possible.
While you are driving with passengers try not to use hand gestures that could be misconstrued by other drivers as hostile, rude, or otherwise negative.
If you accidentally do something that annoys or upsets another driver, make overly-exaggerated expressions of regret like mouth the word “sorry,” make a silly grimace, anything that will send the message that you acknowledge an error. Try to acknowledge the mistake and diffuse situation.
Everybody is capable of showing road rage, yes even you! That’s why it’s so important to learn defensive driving skills along with ways to manage any anger that you might feel while driving. On the road, behaviors that can trigger incidents of road rage are many and varied.
Penske Automotive Group would like to remind you to please not give into the temptation of road rage. Law enforcement are cracking down on aggressive driving and you could find yourself in a lot of trouble.
