Road rage is becoming an epidemic in our society. When did this all happen? I don’t remember even hearing the phrase road rage 10 years ago. The worst that anyone did was honk, shout a few expletives, and give someone the finger. That seemed to be quite satisfying and we all moved on. But, that is not how it works anymore. Now the shouting of expletives and giving someone the finger all too often escalates into threats and dangerous and aggressive driving that result in tragedy.

The CBC’s Fifth Estate cited a Canadian study that found that 40% of men and 27% of women admitted that they acted aggressively while driving and have engaged in yelling, gesturing, threatening to hurt someone, attempting to damage another driver’s car, or hurt him or her. A Canadian survey found that up to 48% of people reported being at the receiving end of someone else’s anger on the road - up to 6% were threatened, up to 4% had someone try to damage their car, and up to 3% had someone attempt to hurt them.

Road Rage Research has determined that although anyone is capable of engaging in road rage, including stay-at-home moms who bake cookies, the profile of someone most prone to road rage is male, under the age of 39, urban, educated, employed full-time, and never married.

What has become of society that we have resorted to this type of behavior? Experts say that with the increase in traffic on our roads comes the increase in commute time which in turn creates frustration which can lead to anger and rage. While we wouldn’t dream of shouting, gesturing, or threatening someone in a face-to-face confrontation on the street, being in a car gives us a false feeling of safety and in essence the courage to be aggressive.

Recently a road rage incident in Milton left a man dead. This incident happened at approximately 5:00 AM. How much traffic could there have been and what on earth could make someone so angry at 5:00 AM that caused this tragedy? The driver who caused the death in this incident is now facing charges of criminal negligence causing death, dangerous driving causing death, and failing to remain at the scene of an accident causing death which could lead to a life sentence. I hope that he gets it. Until we start treating murderers like murderers, we haven’t got a hope to stop road rage.