On Road Rage

( Photo: stellarcafe.blogspot.com )

        


        I have been very lucky.  Living out in the middle of true forested nowhere, I drive a great deal. I even drive a diesel car so that the range and the fuel mileage is excellent so that I don't have to fill up very often.  I have been aware that in other towns and cities road rage incidents have resulted in the deaths of individuals, either when people used cars to attack one another, or when they pulled firearms. In Virginia in the past year, a man drove his car into another driver's car deliberately knocking him off a concrete bridge and onto the road below.  I never drive anywhere without carrying a weapon, but a weapon is not the appropriate tool when dealing with a nut in a vehicle.
                What I knew about road rage was pretty much confined to what I taught my kids when I taught them to drive, which is:    

    1. Avoid eye contact with those who wish to fight or are bizarre or erratic drivers.

    2. Do not engage those who try to get a reaction from you while driving.

    3. Hang back from bizarre or erratic drivers whenever you can.

    4. Notify police of erratic drivers using cellphone as soon as you safely can.

    5. If someone follows you in your car for an extended period, drive to your nearest police station, and know where all the police stations are.

    6. Drive with your car locked, and call police if someone hit your car "deliberately", because this does happen.

   
          Up to this week, I have honestly never personally encountered a case of road rage.

  This week I was driving down a four lane highway just under the posted limit.   There was a fair amount of traffic ahead of me. A car driving quickly appeared behind me, and began to honk as if he wanted me to move. This was impossible as there were cars on wither side of me and many in front stopped at a light. The man was in a new car with a dew rag on his head.  He irrationally tried to pull to one side of me and then the other, in an attempt to force others to stop and let him get around them. Meanwhile, I could see in the rear view mirror lots of yelling and arm waving.  Finally, he forced someone next to me into the ditch, and he sped ahead of me.  Three times he sped up and three times he hit the brakes hard, as if he were trying to get me to hit him in the rear.  By that time, my eldest son, who is also armed, took down the plate number, the description of the car, and the description of this man.  We phoned police as soon as we could and indicated where the driver of this car went.  The man was clearly trying to get into an accident with someone in order to generate some kind of a fight.  As a muscular large black man in his twenties, he would likely have won any physical altercation, with just about anyone.

            There are a few take-away points from this.

1. As the economy continues to deteriorate, we are likely to see more and more people crushing under the pressure of their lives and responsibilities, and some of them will descend into road rage.  Driving, especially in urban or congested areas is likely to become more dangerous.

2. Police used not to take "road rage" incidents too seriously.  Now with deaths up from these behaviors, many of them see this as a genuine hazard.  They may well ask you to prosecute this person.

3. Hang back and don't interact with the motor manic.  Let them move along whenever you can.

4. Although I was thinking that if this man exited his car and walked toward us, I would feel threatened enough to draw my weapon, most states do not allow us to fire a firearm from a vehicle.  There is a special charge in our state for those who fire from the inside of cars. The law was designed to make drive by shooters think again, but it does extend to other situations.  So, getting away from dangerous individuals and situations is by far the better plan, whenever you can.

5. Always stay calm yourself in such situations.  Two people losing their minds isn't going to make the situation any better.

6. Consider driving with good sunglasses.  You can be watching someone or taking down a license plate without anyone realizing what you are looking at.

7. Keep post it notes and a pen handy in your car.  I memorized this man's plate, but in a stressful situation, I might not have.  Cellphone pics might not show enough detail to get license plate information.


        In all, I was surprised at how well my son and I did.  We actually knew when this man was behind us that he was a road rage problem.  When he tried to get into an accident with us from the front, we weren't surprised and therefore I just was careful, even in bumper to bumper traffic not to follow him very closely.
I don't know what happened afterward, although I know the police are very anxious to speak with him.

        There is not much else we could have done.  I already avoid driving in most cities during rush hour.  I already buy a lot of things over the internet.  Sometimes, we just need to be on the road, and we want to be practiced in urban driving.  Give some thought as to how you would handle this, when it happens to you.
According to AAA, there are 1200 deaths in the US annually from road rage.   Therapists are working on creating a psychiatric classification for this disorder.   I also read that there are people serving consecutive life sentences for murders which are the result of road rage.     


 

People Buckling Under the Pressures of Modern Life

         
 

   The signs are everywhere.  Drivers are irrationally passing one another, taking chances at having accidents, simply to be, perhaps, a second ahead of the person they passed.  Domestic violence is up, men against women, women against men, and worst of all, parents against children.  Some violence, on the part of the truly insane, is resulting in attacks such as the Colorado Theater Shooting.  More banks are getting armed security officers, not just to be a deterrent to robberies, but for protection against customers who are angry.  Parents at games played by their young children, are getting into heated arguments which have erupted into fist fights or worse.  More and more videos are surfacing of police in some places acting irrationally or inappropriately given the actions of the citizens around them.   Certainly, some human beings have always been irrational or angry in their dealings with the world, or with people they don't really know, but modern life seems to have enhanced the overreactions of many people.  Here on Earth, people are going to offend, and occasionally disrespect or even insult one another. When this happens, it says more about the unhappy times or poor upbringing of the person who is doing the offending, than it does about the person they disrespect.  It isn't necessary to overreact.  Most of the time, we can use our words, just as we teach our children, to let the person know that we think they should have behaved better.  I hold doors for anyone, male or female who has a package, a stroller, a cane or who or might have more trouble than I would opening an entry door to a store or something, than I would.  Most say" thank you", but the occasional one who does not, hears my "You're welcome", and realizes that I am commenting on their own lack of manners.   When it's a dangerous situation, such as road rage, we are told that avoiding eye contact and letting the irrational driver get away from you is best.  Unless of course, you are inclined to report their plate number along with the incident itself.
             Recently, the Fox affiliate in Richmond Virginia announced that we have a serial butt stabber here in Virginia.  A stocky Hispanic looking man has been slashing the buttocks of women at shopping malls with a box cutter since February.  As funny as that might, at first sound, and the female anchor in Richmond had a lot of trouble keeping her composure, this is quite serious, as it could cause anything from profuse bleeding to HIV-AIDS and Hepatitis.  Experts fear that this man's acting out could accelerate or expand.  This particular perversion has certainly heightened anxiety and fear among people in Virginia.

I am sure this was difficult to report with a straight face, but it's certainly serious.

            In many places there is much more racial tension than there used to be. The presidency of Barack Hussein Obama has been a far more divisive occurrance than I believe he ever intended.Some people have made the mistake that race is a part of the present president's ineptitude, when I don't believe his race has much to do with it, just as criticism of his policies has nothing to do with his race. Still, we are left with racial issues which were less obvious than they are presently, in many places.

( Photo: wespeaknews.com )

 

            I am not sure of all of the sociological reasons for all of this.  Most people feel more financially pressured than they did in perhaps the 1960s.  Electronic devices haven't really made lives simpler, they have enhanced our stress. The bombardment of news from media which is not accurate, and is highly spun can also be a stressor.   It's been thirty years since mothers were told they could work full time, give their children fabulous vacations and college educations, and be fulfilled mothers as well.  The results haven't been quite so stellar.  The day care raising of the generations since has not benefitted the parenting skills, decency, educations, politeness or much else of many of the children, and now adults who were raised there.   In church, they say that much of the public walks around thinking that God is not watching, and that this is one of the reasons people behave badly now.  Some of my friends think that allowing abortions also adversely impacted Americans reverence for life in general.  I don't know if this is true, or not.  I can tell you that other industrialized countries are noticing the same lack of regard for one another, at least to some degree. I know that on our last trip to London, we found people to be far more rude than we had ever noted before.
          As an individual and as families, about all we can do is see to it that we have adequate recreational and down time. We can see that we don't overextend ourselves and our families financially, and this alone can help avoid a lot of stress and outbursts.  We can't get help if our anger or rage exceeds our own management of it.  One thing is sure, the deterioration of American culture has begun and is well established. About all we can do, is hold ourselves separately and compassionately as others deconstruct.  There is only so much we can do to lend a helping hand.  Stay safe and try to enjoy your family life as best you can. Life is about to get a lot more like a science fiction film.