Road Rage

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Road Rage

As I pull up to the stop sign, I look right then left. There is a car in the distance but there is plenty of time to pull out into the road. As I pull out, I notice the car that seemed to be far away has sped up and is now right on my bumper. I slam on my brakes to piss off the driver behind me. I can tell this infuriated him. The driver holds up his middle finger, muttering something that I cannot understand. The driver then whips in front of me, almost running me off the road. As we approach another stop sign, the driver gets out of his car and walks over to mine. I get out of my vehicle and we begin to yell. The next thing I know, we are in an all out fistfight!

The scene described above is an example of road rage. Road rage can be explained by what occurs when drivers get mad to the point of cussing, fighting, or even killing each other. Road rage is extremely dangerous and is a progressing problem in America today. To stop road rage people must have more respect for others and police must start giving hefty penalties to those who show signs of road rage. Road rage has accounted for two-thirds of all highway traffic deaths. (1) " Motorists are being shot, stabbed and run over for totally inane reasons like, 'She wouldn't let me pass' or, 'Nobody gives me the finger'." (2) Almost every driver has been mad on the road, whether it is just a mild complaint like, " Hey, that car cut me off," or an actual fight. Why? That is the question that everyone wants to know. The answer is built up anger, depression and stress.

Throughout a normal day, stress can build up. Whether it's taking care of the kids, being cramped in an office all day, someone getting on your nerves, or any kind of situation, a person builds up a wall of stress. The wall of stress is made of layers of things that upset, anger, depress, confuse, panic, and infuriate you. In the article Driven to Insanity, a doctor states that, " the stress people are under causes them to drive in a manner that normally they would not have under a less stressful situation." Although everyone is not stressed all the time, everyone has experienced and can relate to stress, which increases the possibility that they might react with road rage during stressful conditions.

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