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Dec 17, 2008 9:37 pm US/Central
Police Seeing Increasing Cases Of Road Rage
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
A road rage study that is conducted every year claims that North Texas drivers went from the fifth nicest in the country to the ninth least courteous.
Jaime Torres says he was driving to a doctor's appointment when he was attacked by a couple in a gray sedan.
"He stopped the car. He was yelling at me. She was yelling," he said.
It happened on I-30 near Downtown Dallas.
Torres says the couple got angry when he tried to merge into the HOV lane. They followed him until they all got stopped in traffic.
"The woman got out of the car, and she took a baseball bat and hit my window," he said.
Over in Fort Worth, another case of road rage was reported.
This time a pick up truck forced a 63-year-old woman off I-30 near Ridgmar. Then she says the driver pointed a gun at her.
"Anger really is when you're making an emotional demand that isn't met," said clinical psychologist Joyce Buckner. She says the traffic back ups caused by this week's wintry weather can add to aggressive driving.
Combine that with worries over the economy and it adds up to increasing cases of road rage.
"We feel so vulnerable, as indeed we are. It's like, we can't control the mortgage companies. We can't control the stock market. We can't control the job we just lost," she said. So instead, Buckern continued, we try to control other drivers and end up seeing red.
Buckner says to prevent road rage, don't make demands on other drivers. If you feel yourself getting angry, change your thoughts or count to 10. If nothing works, pull over and stop driving until you calm down.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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