Road Rage: Are Teens Getting

Road Rage: Are Teens Getting the Message?

Road rage is a frame of mind, manifesting as a vehicle driver's uncontrollable anger towards another driver. Road rage can be triggered by something very simple as the car ahead breaking; or if the car ahead is not traveling fast enough for another driver. Sometimes, we just do not know what triggers a driver's rage; perhaps they are late for work, or had a stressful morning or evening before they got into their car to go to work or go about their daily business. What we do know is that the driver's emotional state escalates, and as his or her emotions are escalating, they begin to respond to their anger in a way that compels them to act irrationally. Often the aggressive driver (the legal term describing the driver experiencing road rage) will attempt to get the attention of the driver who triggered their rage, just so that they can verbally abuse them from a distance even though the offending driver cannot hear them. Aggressive drivers often show the anger they feel with offensive hand gestures. Sometimes they will use their vehicle in a threatening manner, swerving close to the driver who triggered their rage. Tailgating is frequently associated with road rage. In any of these instances, the driver who is experiencing road rage, perhaps without even realizing the seriousness of their actions, begins using his or her vehicle not as a mode of transportation, but as a weapon against another driver; speeding up to pass and then cutting the offending driver off and immediately breaking. It becomes a dangerous game that threatens the lives of not just the drivers involved, but also the many other drivers on the road. Road rage kills innocent people, and young people are often the victims. It is important to educate young people about road rage early in their driving experiences.

Educating young people about road rage is important, because it is often young people who fall victim to the anger of aggressive drivers, and experience fatalities either as a result of someone's anger, or as a result of their own reaction to it by responding equally aggressive in their driving. As we listen to the stories about road rage where young lives are lost, there seems to be a pattern that can be identified in that the initial response of young drivers to an aggressive driver; it is to be equally aggressive (ROARR, 2009, found online at http://www.roarrinc.org/Default.aspx?tabid=280702). The results are often tragic, and the lives of many people remain forever altered.

This brief essay explores the issues of road rage, the laws governing these acts of aggression, and how we can best go about educating young people about aggressive driving to protect them from becoming criminals of aggressive driving, and to prevent them from becoming victims of aggressive driving. Using the existing body of research and literature on aggressive driving, I will form a conclusion about how young people, pre-teens (12) through 18 years old are thinking about aggressive driving, and whether or not these young people perceive aggressive driving as dangerous and deadly as it is.

Advocacy

There is an increasing public awareness surrounding the issue of aggressive driving. Unfortunately, the increase arises out of the pain and suffering of loss. Reaching Out Against Road Rage is a nonprofit organization whose web site is found at roarrinc.org. The site and organization advocates informing people on the problem of road wage, and is especially proactive in focusing on young people. The site arises out of the loss of the organization's founder, when her daughter died from an accident caused by road rage. The site presents a streaming video of others who share their pain, including a young teen suffering fro permanent paralysis, and the losses as described by mothers of their teens because of something that did could have been prevented if drivers would understand their actions as road rage.

Young people are particularly vulnerable, because when they receive their driver's license, the license is often accompanied by a sense of power and euphoria. They are highly animated in their euphoria, and often times will be found to pass the driver in front of them if that driver is not going fast enough for them. When they do it, it is very dramatic and high speed. Whether or not they realize it, this seemingly innocent act of passing another driver at a high speed because they lack the patience of the driver's need to travel slower, or perhaps the other driver's vehicle has problems; but this lack of patience, is a demonstration of road rage.

Dr. John A. Larson, Ph.D., who has treated hundreds of aggressive drivers, says that "road-ragers" have characteristics that distinguish them from other perpetrators of violence (Larson p. 62). The characteristics are:

"They have no criminal history

They are not violent off the road

They're courteous off the road

If they are walked away from their vehicle by a police officer, they immediately calm down; usually becoming contrite and apologetic

They often feel like a victim, having acted in self-defense, and after the incident, if not influenced by legal considerations, they will acknowledge that they got out of hand (pp. 62-63)."

Road ragers are people that Larson describes as Jeckyl and Hydes (p. 63). One third of 75 people surveyed by Larson said that they had encountered a hostile driver in the week leading up to Larson's question to them of whether or not they had such an experience. Fifteen of the people admitted they initiated the aggression (p. 63). We could ostensibly conclude that others were perhaps not as forthcoming as the 15 who admitted initiating the incidents in which they were involved.

Larson works with individuals to help them overcome their anger issues that manifest as road rage. The many groups of people he works with include teenagers in driving training classes. This is training that should be included as part of every teen's driver's training classes. Classes and training should begin even earlier, in the pre-teen stage as the pre-teens begin to develop admiration for their older peers and begin to perceive a driver's license as a badge of passing into a new stage in their lives.

Dr. Larson has developed a stress test that has been found to be very accurate in identifying potential road ragers (p. 63). His test was sponsored by the New Jersey Insurance News Service, and administered to over 400 drivers (p. 64). The test results were very interesting:

"Anger

23.8% high, 30.4% moderate

Impatience

12.3% high, 34.2% moderate

Competing

10.5% high, 75% moderate

Punishing

19.5% high, 21.5% moderate (p. 64)"

These are alarming statistics, because, as Larson points out, if any one of these drivers are challenged, that is if you respond to one of these driver's aggressive behavior by acknowledging them with an aggressive response, then it is likely that an incident will ensue that can be dangerous to all of the drivers on the road who have the unfortunate luck to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The results can be deadly. Johnson provides a history that ends tragically, with the aggressive driver shooting to death the driver who had triggered his rage (p. 66).

Even with the attention being called to aggressive drivers as a result of the advocacy of groups like ROARR, in 2000, only 17 states had introduced aggressive driving bills, and only two states enacted the legislation (U.S. Department of Transportation, Background and Introduction, 2009, found online). Recent legislation enacted by states include: Arizona (1998); Virginia (1998); Delaware (1999); Nevada (1999); Rhode Island (2000); and Utah (2000). Clearly the advocacy groups have much work ahead of them to get all 50 states to introduce and enact aggressive driver legislation.

Proposals

The United States Department of Transportation is, as agency all too familiar with road rage in a way that most of us are not; says that aggressive driving has become a problem on our national highways (Preface, 2009, online). The DOT expands the description of the problem of aggressive driving provided here, saying this:

"Examples of aggressive driving include speeding or driving too fast for conditions, constant lane changing, and improper passing. The problem of aggressive driving affects us all and poses a serious safety risk to anyone on the road. That is why the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) joined with law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, judges, and civic and other organizations nationwide to look for ways to address this issue (Preface, online)."

The DOT, however, sees aggressive driving as distinctly different from road rage, and says that road rage is more highly publicized, but that it is considered assault, and is not as prevalent as aggressive driving (Preface, online). If, however, we rely on Dr. Johnson's information, aggressive driver is the prelude to road rage, and the aggression is arising out of anger, competition, impatience, and other precipitating factors that lead to road rage that ends with assault. The distinction being drawn by the DOT is a legal one, and merely draws the line between an incident that results in assault, and one that does not. As Dr. Johnson's testing and surveys have concluded, and provided statistical data in support of his conjectures; aggressive driving will lead to assault depending upon how the driver who triggers the road rager's emotional response responds to that aggressive behavior.

The DOT does acknowledge the need to address aggressive driving, and has strong recommendations concerning the penalties for the offense. The DOT makes recommendations in six areas with statutory strategies (Statutory Strategies, online):

1.

Strengthen existing statutes to include stricter penalties. Repeat offenders should receive enhanced punishment, including increased points, loss of license, higher fines, and jail sentences or probation.

2. Establish comprehensive education programs that address aggressive driving and include them as part of legislative changes. At a minimum, include aggressive driving education in public and private driver education programs. States should also consider anger management education as a supplement to other sanctions when making legislative changes.

3. Develop statutes that match the severity of the offense to its punishment to send a clear message that aggressive driving is a serious offense.

a. Assess significant "points" on an offender's driving record for violations.

b. Include suspension or revocation of driving privileges as part of any proposed statute, for they are effective deterrents.

4. Address aggressive driving that results in death or serious injury as a felony. Add enhanced penalties to existing reckless driving laws and new statutes, defining "serious injury" according to State laws. Felony offenses require that one of the elements of the statute reference the required mental state of the driver (i.e., wanton or willful disregard for consequences) to meet constitutional muster.

5. Provide State and Federal assistance to law enforcement agencies to help defray costs and provide support for retraining in new reckless driving (or aggressive driving) statutes.

a. Provide enhanced training for identifying, recording, arresting, and prosecuting the aggressive driver.

b. Develop a workshop to encourage law enforcement to target moving hazardous violations, particularly those commonly associated with aggressive driving behavior, and to recruit trainers to deliver this workshop.

c. Encourage use of Federal highway safety funds administered by the States for aggressive driving countermeasure training.

d. Encourage statutes that permit in-court and out-of-court use of new technology in traffic-related cases.

e. Use technology to gather evidence of aggressive or reckless driving, showing a clear violation of the appropriate statute. Obtain legislative authority for sharing this information nationwide, and evaluate technological improvements.

6. Adopt the Model Statute developed by the Implementation Team to enact or improve States' reckless driving statutes, including aggressive driving under "Reckless Driving: Aggravated Reckless Driving."6 The model is as follows:

a. A person who operates any motor vehicle with a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property commits the offense of reckless driving. "Willful or wanton" means the deliberate, conscious indifference to the safety of persons or property. Proof of evil or malicious intent is not an element of reckless driving.