Everyone gets frustrated behind the wheel from time to time—what matters is how you choose to react to that frustration. The majority of drivers shake it off and finish their drive without taking it any further. But a small percentage of drivers let their frustration boil into anger and even rage. When this happens, their chances of causing an accident go up dramatically. Driving requires focus, a cool head, and patience—and rage doesn’t exactly allow for any of those.
Have you been injured in a crash caused by road rage? You could be entitled to compensation. Learn more now by calling Hodges Trial Lawyers at 256-826-4129 to set up a consultation with our team of Huntsville personal injury attorneys.
How Rage Can Impact Your Driving
A surprising number of people experience anger while driving. Recent research indicates that 89% of drivers ad bit to have occasionally engaged in aggressive behavior while driving, including honking the horn, following other drivers, or acting hostile to drivers. This study indicates that there is a close link between angry driving and near-misses. Researchers claim that anger can affect your driving in a number of ways:
- Draws your attention away from the road and makes it hard to focus on what you’re doing
- Poor perception
- Interruption of information processing
- Overall worse driving performance
Anger is closely correlated with “crash-related conditions.” Researchers defined crash-related conditions as loss of concentration, risky behaviors, and loss of vehicular control.
Rage can cloud your mind to the point that you forget you even have to stay in control of your vehicle. Drives in the throes of road rage become focused exclusively on exerting their anger on other people—even at the expense of their own safety.
Road Rage Contributes to Car Accidents
Since road rage is closely linked to near-misses, it should come as no surprise that it is also correlated with actual accidents. When you have a driver who is not concentrating on the road, who is more focused on revenge than safety, and who is not even in physical control of their vehicle, it is only a matter of time before they cause a crash. Considering the fact that road rage is often caused by running late and dense traffic, the likelihood of a crash is even higher. Combine all of those factors with heavy traffic, and it only takes a tiny loss of control for an angry driver to cause a severe or fatal collision in Huntsville.
The Effects of Road Rage Go Beyond Collisions
People have lost their lives due to road rage—and not even just in collisions. Some road rage incidents have incredibly tragic outcomes. Road rage shootings are on the rise, with an average of 22 people shot and injured or killed every month. This takes road rage to a completely new level. When a driver is so angry and out of control that they are willing to follow someone, get out of their car, and shoot them, you are dealing with an incredibly dangerous individual.
Road Rage Accidents Are Often More Severe
In addition to causing more accidents, road rage can lead to more severe accidents. Consider the average traffic accidents—drivers misjudge the speed of another car, forget to check their blind spot, or miss a stop sign. They make an error, realize their mistake too late, and slam the brakes or swerve to try to avoid a crash. Even if their efforts to avoid a crash are unsuccessful, those efforts likely mitigate the damage caused by the crash. There are no such crash avoidance efforts in road rage accidents. Road-raging drivers may feel that the other driver actually deserves to be hit and that they are justified in causing a collision. When there are no efforts to mitigate the effects of a collision, the effects are far worse.
Injured by an Aggressive Driver? Call Hodges Trial Lawyers Today
We understand how frightening a road rage encounter can be. If you’ve been hurt because of an angry driver’s negligence or malice, let us help. Set up a consultation with our car accident lawyers in Huntsville or Athens now. Give us a call at 256-826-4129 or send us a message online to get started.
