Road Rage Roundup

Littledan77 / CC BY 2.0

Here's this weeks roundup of road rage stories:

1. The photo comes to us courtesy of Littledan77, who tells the story of riding his bicycle and being cut off by a car, nearly struck and killed. He was raging and furious, but had a creative vision — this picture. “There was nothing I could do to vent except this picture which to be honest took so long to do that I have calmed down considerably!” Littledan77, you get a pocket full of anger management points for demonstrating how creating a piece of art to express your emotions can greatly reduce the compulsion of anger.


2. Merrimack, NH: A pickup driver became angry at a car that moved into his lane, then braked for a right hand turn. Pickup driver retrieved a “pitchfork-type garden tool” from the bed of the vehicle and proceeded to threaten the other driver and damaged his truck, police said.


3. Norristown, PA: A tale of escalating road rage. James Roban had stopped by Dunkin Donuts and purchased five cups of coffee for his wife and her coworkers. He was waiting to make a left-hand turn at a signal when Scott Peirce pulled up behind him. Roban did not move quickly enough after the light turned green, and Peirce honked at him twice. Roban states that he drove slowly to avoid spilling coffee and that Peirce honked repeatedly and "displayed his middle finger."

   When they reached another traffic light, Pierce began yelling at Roban and flailing his arms, according to court papers. The defendant stated he couldn’t understand what the other driver was saying and reached over and threw one of the cups of coffee through the open window.

   Peirce received second degree burns on his thighs and scrotum. Roban pleaded guilty to simple assault and recklessly endangering another person and must pay Peirce $1,846 and serve two years probation. Why was no anger management required?!?


4. Tasmania, Australia: An insurance company survey found that 60% drivers had been verbally abused and nearly 70% tailgated. 74% had experience rude gestures. I wonder how that compares to Southern California?

bicycle, assault, pitchfork, coffee, burns, anger

Road Rage: Car vs. Bicycle

This image was snapped by a witness to a road rage incident where the driver of the car became enraged after the bicyclist shouted for him to slow down. The driver is being charged with 2nd degree kidnapping. The (literal) insanity that people can be "driven" to is amazing. I'm certain that sitting on his couch at home, James Millican (who drove the car) would have told anybody who cared to ask that he would never deliberately ram a bicyclist. But after being shouted at to slow down (and possibly having a few drinks), Millican allowed his reaction to drive him into some serious legal trouble. Fortunately, the cyclist was unharmed, and was able to get off the car when Millican slowed for an intersection.

Why would an otherwise sane human being do this? Once can only speculate ... but we know that anger does not come from external events, but rather from how we (choose) to think about those events. Millican must have felt some threat ... probably to his ego by the shouting cyclist. And once a person feels a threat, even just a psychic one, all bets are off unless they immediately use the tools of emotional intelligence and anger management to rein themselves in.

Self-knowledge and self-control, major components of emotional intelligence, would have helped Millican to not simply react, but to notice his thinking and his reactions and to contain them. Anger management skills could have helped him to de-escalate and behave in a rational manner. If emotional intelligence were considered as important as IQ, if it were taught in schools, Millican would likely not be facing charges and the incident would never have been newsworthy. After all, who can imagine a headline that reads Local Man Practices Anger Management and Avoids Committing Mayhem by Using Emotional Intelligence Skills Gained in Grammar School!

Anger management classes based on stress management help students realize that alcohol is a bad way to relieve stress. Emotional intelligence components help students to understand themselves and their triggers as well as to coach themselves through frustration. These techniques form part of the core curriculum of Anderson & Anderson's Anger Management and Executive Coaching curricula.