It's Scary Out There!

AFSCME roadworkers and law enforcement officers have their hands full as aggressive drivers do battle on the nation's highways.

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA

You think you have to put up with crazy drivers? Pity the road crews, law enforcement officers and emergency medical technicians who have to deal with these road warriors — and their victims — every day.

Consider the incident Jimmy Hall witnessed a few months ago.

Hall, a West Virginia state highway equipment operator, was fixing potholes on U.S. Highway 250 when an angry motorist stopped his car, vaulted from his vehicle, picked up an ax and lunged at Hall’s coworker. Suddenly, the motorist stopped dead in his tracks, backed off and returned to his vehicle. Hall’s co-worker had been holding a safety flag alerting drivers to slow down in the work zone.

"It all happened so quickly," says Hall, a member of West Virginia State Employees Union Local 3359 (Council 77). "We were really upset."

"We are forever looking over our shoulders," admits Dave Emery, another West Virginia highway worker. "It’s scary out there!"

ALL THE RAGE. Across America, more and more people seem to be taking out their aggressions on the road, dodging and weaving like grand prix racers, ignoring speed limits, tailgating — all the while using words and gestures they didn’t learn in Sunday school.

"I’ve been given the finger lots of times and been cursed at," says Boston Department of Public Works truck driver Tom McCarthy, a member of AFSCME Local 445 (Council 93). "I’ve had many close calls when it comes to being hit by cars. I ignore these attacks, because to act out in any way could endanger the lives of others as well as myself."

For Karleen George, road rage is nothing new. As a resident of Los Angeles she has experienced hostility on LA’s infamous freeways firsthand. And as a judicial assistant she has seen some of the city’s worst drivers brought to justice.

In 1989 George was in court when a driver was convicted of shooting another motorist. "He claimed in court that he only wanted to scare the driver who had cut him off," recalls the AFSCME Local 575 (Council 36) president.

"Now when I’m driving on the freeway with my 12-year-old son and somebody cuts me off, he yells, ‘Hey mom, get him.’ I say, ‘No, because you don’t know what can happen or who is carrying a weapon.’ What I do know is that every day you have to be extremely careful and drive very defensively, because road rage is on the rise."

The American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety estimates that incidents of aggressive driving have increased by an average of 7 percent in each of the last seven years, from 1,129 in 1990 to 1,800 in 1996.

"Yet this is only the small tip of a very large iceberg," says David Willis, president of the AAA group. "For every aggressive driving incident serious enough to result in a police report or newspaper article, there are hundreds or thousands more which never got reported to the authorities."

HYPO-MANIC MOTORISTS. What is behind this road rage? Clinical psychologist John Mitchell, a member of AFSCME Local 34 (Council 14), calls the motorists’ mania "displaced anger," a condition in which disgruntled motorists take out their frustrations while sitting behind the wheel.

Over some 20 years, Mitchell, who works for the Hennepin County (Minn.) Mental Health Center, has treated both aggressive drivers and their victims. In one case, an otherwise passive individual picked up a camping knife and flashed it at an aggressive driver who was tailgating him. "The patient sought treatment from me because he had never reacted in such a way and thought he was losing his mind for retaliating," says Mitchell. "While a battery of tests revealed he was not suffering from a mental disorder, the patient has now learned how to control his car and himself when confronted."

Mitchell says that some aggressive drivers believe that they have the right to misbehave behind the wheel. A cab driver he treated insisted that slower drivers were keeping him from earning a living and that he had the right to cut in front or speed up to pick up his next fare.

Mitchell says that some people who drive aggressively suffer from a hypo-manic condition — one that makes them feel good about what they are doing. "It gives them the energy and power that can arouse them to this explosive level in a heartbeat," he explains.

Mitchell, too, has encountered aggressive driving episodes. "I try to de-personalize the situation. I give myself little phrases such as ‘This is not a chariot race or a personal affront. ... It is an exhibition, not competition. ... I don’t have to teach anyone a lesson.’" Mitchell says that while this works for him, it does take a lot of effort not to mimic these bad drivers.

WATCHFUL IN WISCONSIN. Perched strategically next to a highway, Wisconsin State Trooper Casey Perry serves as roadside referee for the highway warfare. One of the most common driver infractions he sees is the failure to yield.

"I see them invariably cut across the highway instead of yielding and waiting their turn," says the president of AFSCME Local 55 (Council 24).

Armed with the latest traffic monitoring technology — and a pad full of citation forms — Perry does his best to bring these drivers to justice. And he is not just stopping at the roadside: In a recent letter to Wisconsin’s Secretary of the Department of Transportation on behalf of fellow union members, Perry called for a "tough love" campaign to educate the public about the high cost of aggressive driving.

"Education is key to voluntary compliance," says Perry.

The first step is to teach aggressive drivers that they will be held accountable for their actions. "We must stop feeling sorry for drivers when their vehicles land in the ditch or are involved in a crash if they were speeding," says Perry.

Perry also recommends that law enforcement take to the air using helicopters to monitor traffic and to alert officers on the ground to dangerous drivers. To make sure that aggressive drivers know about these eyes in the sky, he suggests inviting the news media along in the helicopters. This approach would also show safe drivers that they do not need to take matters into their own hands when victimized by an aggressive driver.

"No matter how much we educate the public about the need to control their tempers behind the wheel, there’s no better remedy for bad driving than the threat of a ticket or losing their license," says Perry.

POLICE ACTION. Jimmy Hall and his fellow West Virginia highway workers understand this lesson as well. That’s why they have requested that police cruisers be assigned to accompany road crews.

"We’re still waiting," says Hall. "We’re just afraid that the next crazy driver to jump out of his car might not stop short of hurting one of our workers."

By Venida RaMar Marshall

What's a driver to do?

See an aggressive driver on the road? You can help keep yourself and other drivers safe.

• Get out of the way of an aggressive driver.
• Avoid eye contact.
• Ignore gestures and refuse to return them.
• Put your pride in the back seat. Do not challenge aggressive drivers by speeding up or attempting to hold your own in your travel lane.
• Report aggressive drivers to the appropriate authorities by providing a vehicle description, license number, location, and direction of travel. Cellphone users, call the police.
• If an aggressive driver is involved in a crash farther down the road, stop a safe distance from the crash scene, wait for the police to arrive and report the driving behavior that you have witnessed.

Source: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration