ONK2 4/24/15 Road rage has many different definitions according to different people, all still having something to do with anger. Road rage is generally defined as a motorist’s uncontrolled anger that is usually incited by an irritating act of another motorist and is expressed in aggressive or violent behavior.
Some people call it an increasing epidemic that is sweeping across our highways. Other people may refer to it as a solution to our overpopulated highways, just a form of aggressive driving.
People can argue over what it is or should be called as long as they want; the fact is no matter what they call it, it causes accidents and sometimes death. It is way too dangerous to just be ignored. There is a clear distinction between road rage and aggressive driving, where road rage is a criminal charge and aggressive driving a traffic offense. This definition places the blame on the driver. “Road rage” is also recognized as a disorder; intermittent explosive disorder. About 5 percent to 7 percent of the nationally representative sample had had the disorder. I would say this is a very large number considering that these were all adults that were tested and they most likely drive. For all you know, you could have intermittent explosive disorder and not even know it yet.
It may just be that when one begins to drive is when they recognize themselves that they have it.
Nowadays, it is more dangerous than ever to be driving due to gun laws. Regular people are able to carry firearms in their vehicles and it may just take one angry driver to pull the trigger and cause a huge scene. Over a seven year period, 218 murders and 12,610 injuries were attributed to road rage. Many things can trigger a driver, some which include; slow drivers, cutting someone off, slamming on your brakes with a person following, etc. It could just take a few seconds for someone to ‘get into’ road rage mode. The thing with angry drivers is that they are very unpredictable. A vehicle is heavy,