Incidents with injury on rise

Hot heads, lead feet and great expectations. Traffic control professionals and mental health experts agree: Any combination of these behind the wheel of an automobile will breed aggressive driving or its ugly cousin, road rage.

By Matthew Hill/REGISTER-HERALD REPORTER

Christy Williams suffered a broken finger, a sprained wrist and other injuries in a road rage incident Aug. 30 in Beckley. "I don't think anything justifies that much violence," the Mountain State University student said. (Photo by Lew Whitener/THE REGISTER-HERALD)

Christy Williams was waiting to pull out of a Mountain State University parking lot. The 28-year-old physicians' assistant student's only expectation on Aug. 30 was an idyllic summer afternoon.

"I was making a left turn and the driver on my left was letting me into traffic," she recalled. "I was sitting partially in the right lane, waiting for the line of cars to provide an opening for me. That's when he came from my right up the hill."

"He" accelerated, passed the Oak Hill native and then cut her off. Williams said witnesses thought the other driver had hit her car. "It was that close," she said.

"He was cursing me out of his window, so I flipped him the 'friendly flier.'"

The man parked perpendicular to the road, blocking Williams in, and got out of his car.

"He reached into my window and was punching, kicking and cursing," Williams said. "He pulled my leg through the window and he was clawing at it. I ended up with severe bruises up the back of my leg.

"He also sprained my wrist and broke my little finger as I tried to keep from being pulled through the window. It was bloody."

The assailant got in his car and sped down the road, but Williams and her friend stayed in pursuit to get a license plate number.

"When he saw us following him, he slammed his brakes. I tried to stop and rear-ended him, so he came out and started screaming at me again. My chest was bursting with numbness and shortness of breath. I seriously feared for my life."

Williams and her assailant both ended up in the hospital, but in different wings. The attacker still faces charges of assault and battery, malicious intent with a deadly weapon (his car) and wanton endangerment.

"I had four kids at home waiting, wondering where their mom is. I just want those kind of people to realize that they're affecting more than just one person when they do that.

"I don't think anything justifies that much violence. No excuse whatsoever."

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Hot heads, lead feet and great expectations. Traffic control professionals and mental health experts agree: Any combination of these behind the wheel of an automobile will breed aggressive driving or its ugly cousin, road rage.

"There is a failure long before someone gets in their vehicle," said Hamlet Smith, a counselor at Life Strategies in Beckley. "Anger, whether it's murder or simple frustration, is only different in intensity. We all carry a certain amount of anger with us from past disappointments.

"Anger is most often evidenced in those who fail to plan for the unexpected."

How people handle that anger can be the difference between life and death in more ways than one.

"Road rage has more of a physical aspect to it," Raleigh County sheriff's Deputy W.J. Crist said. "One driver will try to fight or do some kind of bodily harm. Even shootings and stabbings have happened over road rage incidents."

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Patrolman Dave Allard of the Beckley Police Department grimly tells the tale of a road rage episode on Harper Road earlier this year. One driver stopped short in front of another, and a chase ensued.

"Gestures were exchanged and the situation escalated. When they were stopped at a red light, the second driver got out of his car, walked up to the first car and smacked the driver in the face. The driver in the rear actually bumped the other vehicle with his own when he got out," Allard explained.

These incidents are not unique. Since 1990, Allard said, road-rage incidents that result in injury have increased 51 percent. According to a 1997 study by U.S. News & World Report, 37 of those offenders used firearms against other drivers. An additional 28 percent used other weapons and 35 percent used their cars as weapons.

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Although not all road rage results in violence, it's still very aggressive. But is it the same as aggressive driving? Steve Kessler, chief deputy of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, stated the difference succinctly.

"The difference between aggressive driving and road rage is the difference between being irritated and being POed."

Changing lanes erratically and without signaling, flashing headlights, driving slowly in the left lane (i.e., passing lane), running red lights and tailgating. All are manifestations of an aggressive driver, Kessler said.

"Road rage occurs when the result is an altercation and someone uses the vehicle as a weapon."

Crist told of a driver in Crab Orchard who was clocked at close to 100 mph while chasing down another individual who had wronged him in traffic.

Allard said he hears every possible excuse once the driver is pulled over.

"They usually say that they're getting even for what another driver did to them or they're just keeping up with traffic."

State Police Sgt. J.K. Rapp sees his share of aggressive driving on the West Virginia Turnpike, and he says such behavior is indicative of an overwhelmed human being.

"They lose the ability to cope with stressful situations and to control their own emotions. That's when they start to look to take it out on someone else."

Rapp said he often sees situations where a traffic accident or highway construction is several miles ahead, but a person in the heat of road rage will take out that anger on the driver immediately in front. "Both drivers are in the same situation. They are just handling it differently."

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What are the roots of such irrational anger? What could cause an otherwise easy-going, relaxed individual to go off the deep end when in control of a vehicle?

Most counselors and psychologists say to look deeper. Many individuals may be concealing troubled waters under a calm surface, much more frustration and anger that only boil over in certain situations.

Smith compares unresolved anger to unwashed perspiration.

"When you sweat, it smells bad today. If you don't take a bath, tomorrow it really smells bad. As it builds up, sweat smells worse and worse. Last month's sweat really smells horrible."

"It's a complex issue with no simple answer," said Samantha Mann, a counselor at Cornerstone Psychological Services. "We have misconceptions about time, place and where we should be."

Mann said it's comparable to those who hit the links on the golf course and, after several consecutive bad strokes, bend the golf club over their knee. "The problem is that, with a car, you have a dangerous weapon that can hurt people."

That sense of power and control is very significant to Beckley psychologist Dr. Charles Yeargan. He says we, as Americans, equate a car with a sense of freedom. That sense can sometimes be exaggerated into an entitlement.

"Road ragers have a powerful machine under their hands. When they're behind the wheel and sense that entitlement, they may be prone to fight over it. There's also a psychological sense of distance because they're in the car and no one can hear them."

Yeargan sees two patterns regarding road rage behavior: People who appear calm on the surface but contain a lot of agitation and those who do not engage in any self-reflection and believe their rage is not a problem.

"To me, it's about what is happening inside the person regarding some situation in his or her life."

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Knowing how the anger starts is half the battle. Recognizing it and dealing with it can be much more challenging.

What about that guy in front of you, driving slowly in the left lane? If you're that guy, what about the person tailgating you? If I hit my brakes to warn him to back off, is that a legitimate reaction or have I become the road-rager? How can I calm down and realize the insignificance of it?

"Never get behind the wheel without more realistic expectations," Mann said.

"People do drive illegally and make mistakes, and there's nothing we can do to prevent that. A good homework assignment: Next time you go to town, don't allow yourself to exceed 40 mph. We've been trained to expect immediate gratification with the click of a button, so to speak."

Smith suggests seeing a therapist for help with anger, if necessary.

"Deal with your anger. If you have to see a therapist, do it. This is far superior to letting it fester in your life. More specifically, deal with the issues that continue to frustrate you."

To react is to be placed in a situation where one is simply responding. Smith says drivers should not succumb to the prevailing wind of behavior. "Act, don't react. Do what fits your character and what is right to do. Do not let the current crisis define how you are going to deal with it."

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Law enforcement, while sharing similar advice, also shares the deterrent value of punishment. "Some of them are like talking to a rock," Kessler said. "If they get abusive and don't calm down, they're more likely to get a ticket."

Rapp implored aggressive drivers and road ragers to contemplate how their rage will affect them when they reach a destination.

"We all have a destination we want to get to. We don't want to be in a mindset where we step out of the vehicle and don't greet our loved ones the way we want.

"With a business appointment, it's very similar. We want to put a good face forward. Take a deep breath and think of your safe arrival at a destination and who you're going to meet.

"Ten minutes from now, your problems won't exist."

- E-mail: mhill@register-herald.com