Many drivers report feeling frustration while they are on the road. Too many motorists act on this anger and give in to these emotions by driving in unsafe and aggressive ways. When drivers do this, they can cause an accident and injure themselves or injure others.
Victims who are seriously hurt by an aggressive driver, or the families of people killed in these accidents, should know they may be entitled to compensation. If a victim or his family can prove the accident occurred as a direct result of aggressive driving, it is usually possible to hold the angry driver financially accountable for the damage caused. The aggressive driver could be legally liable and made to pay damages to victims for all of the economic and non-economic losses caused by the crash.
How do Drivers Cause Accidents by Being Aggressive?
According to AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, motorists tend to engage in risky behaviors when their emotions are running high - especially when they are angry. Aggressive driving behaviors such as tailgating, red light running or cutting off other drivers significantly increase the potential for a car accident.
For example, the AAA study indicates one of the main behaviors motorists engage in when they become angry and drive aggressively is going too fast, and especially speeding in high-traffic areas. Unfortunately, according to crash data from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, approximately 30 percent of all fatal automobile accidents involve speeding as a contributing factor to causing the crash.
AAA Foundation also indicated some drivers will express their aggression and frustration by running a traffic light. According to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, more than 126,000 people are hurt and more than 700 people die over the course of a single year as a result of motorists running red lights.
It is not just speeding and running red lights, either. Driver aggression also causes motorists to tailgate, or follow too closely behind other cars. This can cause rear-end accidents. Aggressive drivers also cut off other motorists, sometimes slowing down on purpose after doing so, or block cars from changing lanes.
Even though drivers know that these behaviors are so dangerous, AAA Foundation found as many as half of all accidents over a four-year period involved some type of driver aggression just prior to the crash. All of these incidents represent preventable accidents.
Driver aggression is entirely preventable if motorists simply don't allow themselves to become mad or - if they do become angry - if they can channel that anger and avoid allowing it to affect their driving behavior.
Motorists should try to acquire various calming techniques while driving if they find themselves getting too frustrated. If they feel compelled to act on their anger, they should stop and take a break from driving before they hurt themselves or cause injury to anyone else on the road.