Recently, CS Monitor published a troubling story about a 4-year-old girl who was killed after she was shot in a road rage incident. The girl was in the vehicle with her parents, but the parents were not injured.
Road rage involves extreme anger and frustration on the road. While it is not extremely common for road rage to result in a shooting, it is common for incidents of road rage to lead to aggressive driving behaviors such as tailgating, illegal passing or even running someone off the road. When an accident happens because of someone who is experiencing road rage and being negligent when it comes to safety, Naples injury attorneys can provide invaluable assistance to the victims of the crash.
Preventing Road Rage Accidents
The recent road rage shooting death occurred on Interstate 40 one hour prior to the evening rush hour. The traffic was heavy on the road at the time of the incident and the two cars involved were traveling westbound on the Interstate.
Witnesses report the cars were traveling next to each other. One was a red truck and the other a red sedan. The red truck may have been preventing the sedan from passing and witnesses indicate the red truck swerved from lane to lane to keep the red sedan traveling behind it. One witness indicates the driver of the truck was likely the shooter.
The incident occurred one month after another situation where road rage led to a shootout. In that case, the driver who shot the gun argued he was acting in self-defense.
While stories of shootouts are not very common, guns may play a bigger role in road rage incidents than people think. Research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Auto Vantage auto club reveal as many as 66 percent of fatal traffic deaths are caused by aggressive driving and 37 percent of aggressive driving situations involve a person who has a gun.
This is bad news already, but things are not looking up. In fact, road rage incidents in general have been on the rise. According to CS Monitor’s report of some recent statistics collected by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, road rage incidents increased almost seven percent within a six-year period.
So, what can drivers do? Drivers should try to move over if someone is tailgating them. Drivers should also leave ample time to get to their destination so they don’t become angry and perpetrate road rage themselves.
Drivers are also encouraged to practice positive relaxation techniques, including meditative breathing, and should consider opting for relaxing music or audiobooks in the car, rather than music that is more aggressive.
While some motorists will make the effort to fight road rage, others won’t. When a driver operates a vehicle aggressively, which causes you to sustain crash-related injuries, be sure to contact Ryan Kuhl at The Kelleher Firm for help as soon as possible so you can begin the process of filing a claim for damages.