Essay On Aggressive Driving And Road Rage

The paper will discuss the concept of aggressive driving and road rage. Aggressive Driving And Road Rage Has An Adverse Impact On Both The Driver And The People On The Road And Thus It Should Be Avoided In All Means. The paper will discuss New Jersey and United States laws to control rash driving.    

Aggressive driving and road rage are traffic offenses and crimes. Thus, they should be avoided at all means aggressive driving often escalates to road rage. Causes of road rage include diverse factors like disregard for others’ safety or the law. Road rage can also be a learned behavior. Psychological factors like displacement of anger and high life stressors are often the cause of aggressive driving in the US. environmental factors also contribute towards road rage in crowded roads which boosts anger. It can be stated that drivers who are engaged in road rage are more impulsive and have higher anxiety levels. They are hostile in nature. According to American traffic safety, about 52.3% of drivers have accepted that they are involved in aggressive driving. 45.2% reported even when they know that driving 15 mph over the speed limit can get them into legal trouble, they have done so in the past 30 years (1).

According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, it is stated that adverse impact of road rage and aggressive driving might result in fatal accidents. Road rage impairs overall judgements of the driver which results in making poor decisions. Road rage impairs the response time. Aggressive driving results in over 30,000 deaths and fatal crashes. Road rage can also result in street fights and even collision. Road rage distracts the drivers and thus makes the drivers drive unsafely (2). 

Thus, New Jersey has begun an aggressive driving law to increase criminal penalties for the drivers to curb down road rage. New Jersey enforces laws against aggressive driving and thus charges the aggressive driver under the 39:4-97 (Careless Driving), 39:4-97.2 (Operating a vehicle in an Unsafe Manner) laws. Assault if made by auto vehicle, it is a third-degree crime. Drivers often purposely drives aggressively with no consideration of the protection of others. In such cases, they are charged with a fine of $250 surcharge. For fourth degree crime, the driver will be charged with a minimum of $50 fine (3).       

The law enforces that every vehicle needs to abide by the appropriate speed laws and be within the speed limits to ensure road safety. Speed management workshops within communities to promote the important message (4).  

Hence, it can be concluded that road rage and aggressive driving is a serious issue in the US and the impact can result in life loss. Hence, while driving one needs to follow the traffic guidelines laid down on them by state and the country.

aaafoundation.org. [Internet]. AAA FOUNDATION FOR TRAFFIC SAFETY. 2022 [cited 18 August 2022]. 

Chraif M, Aniţei M, Burtăverde V, Mihăilă T. The link between personality, aggressive driving, and risky driving outcomes–testing a theoretical model. Journal of Risk Research. 2016 Jul 2;19(6):780-97.

 

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety [Internet]. 2022 [cited 18 August 2022]. Available from: https://newsroom.aaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Aggressive-Driving-Laws-Chart_vFINAL.pdf

Nhtsa.gov. 2022 [cited 18 August 2022]. Available from: https://www.nhtsa.gov/sites/nhtsa.gov/files/documents/812007g-hspg19-speedmanagement.pdf