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Aggressive Driving AKA. (Road Rage)

My 32 year old cousin was shot and killed in a road rage incident. According to his wife, he had a reputation for being short tempered.

Darren and his family were on their way home from shopping. When another man and his family cut them off. After cutting them off the man and his family began flashing obscene gestures at the family, Darren then began returning the insults.

Things began to escalate when Darren jumped from his car at a red light and began beating on the other family’s windshield. The man inside the car pulled a hand gun and shot Darren in the arm which made him even angrier. The man then shot Darren in the head killing him on contact.

Actual Incident

Human Blood On The Pavement

Ask Yourself

What could have been done differently?

Have you ever felt like this while driving?

What comments do you have about this incident?

This is the result of Road Rage.

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Five Zones Of Aggressive Driving

VIOLENT ZONE

The Unfriendly Zone – Closing ranks to deny someone entering your lane, because you are upset.

Hostile Zone - Tailgating to pressure another driver to go faster or get out of the way.

Violent Zone – Making visible obscene gestures at another driver.

Minor Mayhem Zone – Pursuing other cars in a chase because of provocation or insult.

Major Mayhem Zone – Getting out of the car and beating or battering someone as a result of road exchange.

Distractions while driving.

Drivers who consider themselves as almost perfect (with no room to improve) also confessed to significantly more aggressiveness than drivers who see themselves as still improving.

2 out of 3 drivers still insist on seeing themselves as the perfect driver. They also feel as if they have no room for improvement.

Did you know that aggressive drivers see “The Other Guy” as the problem, so they don’t look at their own aggressive behavior.

Do Aggressive Drivers See Themselves As Aggressive?

Uncontrolled Anger….

Lane Change Gone Wrong.

What Causes Aggressive Driving Behavior?

It is ultimately our emotional state, our stress levels and our thinking patterns that either cause us to drive aggressively or lead us to be the victims of others.

Some drivers don’t know how to deal effectively with their angry feelings and how to cope with the situation.

Many psychologist see the anger as the root of the problem.

Ultimately it’s our emotional state, our stress levels and our thinking patterns either cause us to drive aggressively or even lead us to be the victims of others.

Going Through A Divorce

Stressful Work Load

Two Ways To Cope With Impaired Driving Emotions

1. Reduce Your Stress. Driving is emotionally challenging because you constantly have to cope with unexpected things. Being in a hurry and driving on congested roads add to our general stress levels. Suggestions include listening to relaxing music or educational tapes on the road, leaving 15 minutes early, and getting up earlier so you are less rushed.

2. Change Your Perspective.with different “self-talk.” As a result of life experiences, we all have “automatic” thoughts that are generated by our mind when certain “triggers” occur when driving. We can change our perspective and thus our angry feelings by consciously changing this “self-talk.” For example, that driver who just cut you off in traffic might be a single mother who has worked nine hours that day and is now rushing home too cook dinner, help with homework, do laundry and tend to her children. This doesn’t make it ok, but it does suggest that not everyone is being rude.

Struck down over a disagreement.

Pulled From Car

My 18 year-old cousin was sentenced to 1 year and 5 years probation for handing his friend a bat. The story began on a Wednesday afternoon in February of 2005, an man and his family cut the dump truck off in rush hour traffic. After doing so he got out of his vehicle and used profanity and obscene gestures to the driver.

The driver then became in raged and followed the man and his family, he also had the other drivers follow him. The dump truck driver then raced ahead cutting the van off and blocking the intersection in front of him. The driver pulled the man from the van and began hitting him, he then instructed my cousin (William) to go get the bat from him truck and he did.

The driver began to beat the man with the bat in front of his wife and children. The family was yelling and screaming for him to stop. He stopped after hearing the police sirens. The truck drivers took off and went back to work, the day after they were all apprehended and sent to jail. The van driver suffered multiple injuries and broken bones, but he did survive. His family on the other hand will live with this image in their minds forever.

Driver and his friend pulling man from car.

Put Yourself In Her Shoes.

True Story

When I was 15 my best friend was killed by a man, because he wore the same color shirt as the man who cut him off. According to the police report, a young man was cut off while leaving the club. He was only able to see what color the mans shirt was during the incident.

After arriving at a restaurant where everyone was hanging out and talking. He noticed my McLaren with an orange polo shirt on, he approached him and began to argue about being cut off earlier that night. When McLaren told him that he had not been to the club, he had just come from his girlfriends and he was waiting on his food to get done.

The guy would not take no for an answer and they began to fight, during the fight the guy pulled a gun and fatally shot him under the arm bursting his heart, he died on impact. This broke my heart because it was a life loss, because he was wearing the wrong color shirt.

ReferencesChristie Adams, Personal Stories 1992 – 2002

http://www.stoproadrage.us/road-rage-statistics/

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8843470

 Empowered Presentations, Presentation Design Firm - Honolulu, HI

http://www.lemonharanguepie.com/2011/02/tailgating-cop-rear-ends-car-driver-now.html

http://www.stoproadrage.us/road-rage-statistics/