CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- The number of people involved in road rage incidents is on the rise across the country.
554 people were shot in road rage incidents in the United States last year and 141 people were killed, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic (citing Everytown for Gun Safety data).
"That's twice what we saw back in 2018. That amounts to one person being killed or injured in a road rage incident about every 16 hours," AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesperson Morgan Dean said.
Dean said shootings are extreme examples of road rage which also includes aggressive driving, tailgating, swerving, and yelling at other drivers.
Dean said in Virginia, there had been at least three road rage-related shootings through May including one in Hampton Roads and two in Central Virginia. There was also a shooting I-95 in Chesterfield in June.
Dean said while crash numbers dropped during COVID, the severity of crashes increased due to people driving more aggressively.
"And when you start to look at the connections with all of those, some of those things can lead into those road rage incidents," said Dean. "They put everyone in your vehicle at risk, everyone in all the vehicles around you at risk, as well as other road users. It could be a pedestrian on the side of the road. It could be a bicyclist waiting to cross the road. There's lots of other people that can be pulled into this and that puts them at danger."
Dean suggested for drivers that are the target of a raging driver, attempt to either disengage with them or diffuse them situation.
"If somebody's angry on the roadway, it's best for you just to avoid that eye contact, don't talk with them, don't yell out the window with them. Let them go on past you," added Dean. "But, in some instances, no matter what you do, they're not happy with that. If they start to follow you, that needs to be a phone call to 911. Drive yourself to a fire station, to a police station, drive to a busy supermarket — somewhere where the public is around. You don't want to drive home, you don't want that person following you home if they're angry with you and if they have made some sort of a threat of violence against you."
As for people who might be on the raging side of things, Dean urged people to be conscious of how they feel when they get into a car and if they are already in an angry mood that could lead to a quicker escalation.
"I think, for people to kind of think about out there is that we all have good days and we all have bad days. And on those bad days, kind of being conscious of it. And if you're already kind of amped up and angry about things, maybe that's some time to sit down, maybe do that meditation, maybe think about some of the anger management things if you've ever read through some of those things," said Dean. "Another thing to think about for kind of creating some of that anger out there is traffic. If you're going to be in traffic, kind of recognizing that I'm going out in the middle of morning rush hour, there's probably going to be a lot of cars out there. Let me just take a deep breath and know that I'm probably going to face some slowdowns, but I'm ready to deal with it."
Drivers CBS 6 spoke with about the issue, did not seemed surprised and had their own ways of avoiding those types of situations.
"If somebody if they curse me or something like that, just keep my head straight. I just ignore them," said Deborah Coleman. "People may cut in front of me and they started cursing, I quickly speed on down, because, I didn't want to be in harm's way."
"People need to have a tad more patience. That's the main issue. People just want to act like they're on a NASCAR ride," added Clark, who said he has tinted the side windows on his Corvette to avoid people trying to stare him down. "People are just not content with the way other people drive. And they just want to make a spectacle of themselves and just dart in front of them and whatever cost it may be, just to get a little bit ahead of them."
"I see a lot of people that don't respect truckers and a lot of people that don't respect other drivers and that's a major problem. And it's going to take an accident for one of them to lose their life to realize and it's going to be too late. It's crazy the way people drive.," a driver named Roger said, who added if people are angered because they are running late, they should give themselves more time. "How hard is it to respect everyone out here? You know, everybody's got their thing they got to do and they're going to do it, but you ain't got to get crazy on a road to get there to do it."
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