Aggressive Driving

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines aggressive driving as operation of a motor vehicle that endangers or is likely to endanger people or property. It is a progression of unlawful driving actions that include:

• Speeding - exceeding the posted limit or driving too fast for conditions;

• Improper or excessive lane changing: failing to signal intent, failing to see that movement can be made safely, or

• Improper passing - failing to signal intent, using an emergency lane to pass, or passing on the shoulder.

Aggressive driving is a traffic offense. The exact number of motor vehicle crashes caused by aggressive drivers is unknown, but NHTSA estimates about 66 percent of all traffic fatalities annually are caused by aggressive driving behaviors, such as passing on the right, running red lights, and tailgating.

A 1997 study by the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety found a 51-percent increase in violent aggressive driving between 1990 and 1996. Of the more than 10,000 incidents of this kind of driving reported, 218 people were killed.

NHTSA defines road rage as an "assault with a motor vehicle or other dangerous weapon by the operator or passenger(s) of another motor vehicle or an assault precipitated by an incident that occurred on a roadway. Road rage is a criminal offense."

Speeding, following too closely, changing lanes without caution or signaling, failing to keep right, failing to obey traffic signals, driving to the left of center, driving on the shoulder, and failing to yield the right-of-way.

Some of the factors linked to aggressive driving include:

• Lack of responsible behavior.

• Reduced levels of traffic enforcement.

• Increased congestion and travel in urban areas. A Federal Highway Administration study of 50 metropolitan areas found that almost 70 percent of urban freeways today are congested during rush hour, compared with 55 percent in 1983.

• According to NHTSA, aggressive drivers are more likely to:

  • be high-risk drivers, drive impaired, speed, and/or drive unbuckled.

  • see their vehicles as providing cover of anonymity and therefore less inhibited and more likely to engage in aggressive behaviors (Ellison et al., 1995).

  • be "Type A" personalities (Evans et al., 1987).

  • run stop signs, disobey red lights, speed, tailgate, weave in and out of traffic, pass on the right, make unsafe lane changes, flash lights, blow horns, or make threatening hand and facial gestures.

You should:

• Make every attempt to get out of the way.

• Put your pride in the back seat. Do not challenge him or her by speeding up or attempting to "hold-your-own" in your travel lane.

• Wear your seat belt. It will hold you in your seat and behind the wheel in case you need to make an abrupt driving maneuver, and it will protect you in a crash.

• Avoid eye contact.

• Ignore gestures and refuse to return them.

• Report aggressive drivers (once you are safe) to appropriate authorities; provide a vehicle description, license number, location, and if possible, direction of travel. If you have a cell phone, and can do it safely, call the police - many have special numbers (e.g. 9-1-1 or #77).

• If an aggressive driver is involved in a crash farther down the road, stop a safe distance from the crash scene, wait for police to arrive, and report the driving behavior you witnessed.

You should:

• Always merge with plenty of room. Never "cut" people off.

• If you are in the left lane and someone wants to pass, let him - even if you are going the speed limit.

• Never use obscene gestures.

• Drive defensively.