| Updated: 10/26/2012 9:58 am |
Published: 10/25/2012 3:59 pm
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Tulsa police report too many drivers are allowing their anger to turn into rage.
"Sometimes they honk at you. Yell at you, give you the finger," said Tulsa driver Danielle Tincup.
However, some drivers are controlling their frustration on the road.
"I will honk at them a lot but I usually don't say anything or take any action because my kids are in the car,” said Tulsa driver Lacy Tanner.
Police said last week officers cited a driver whose road rage went too far. The driver said a teen cut him off so he followed him. That led to a fender bender where the driver punched the teen.
Tulsa Police report in the last reporting period (Sept. 3rd to September 30th) there were 1,150 car accident reports filed with TPD. In the same reporting period last yere there were slightly fewer.
"Most of our collisions are because people followed to closely,” said TPD Traffic Officer Jeremy Lawson.
Traffic officers in the Mingo Valley Division said road rage cases are stemming from non-injury accidents.
Plenty of Tulsa drivers had something to say about Tulsa drivers.
"You get one snowflake or a drop on the ground and people don't know how to drive,” said Robert Parkell.
Others said it’s chaotic on the road and scary.
Officer Lawson said he’s had to deal with impatient drivers.
"People are tailgating me and flying around me as I am en route to an emergency situation,” said Lawson.
Drivers said they yell at the windshield but never take it as far as some others have done to them.
"Honk, flip you off. Cut you off, swerve and try to run you off the road. I've had a few people run me off the road," said Tanner.
Now officers said they are responding to crashes where tempers are flaring.
"They are escalating into fist fights in the roadway," said TPD Traffic Corporal Brian Collum.
In 2008, Alexander Busby, was convicted for stabbing a driver who cut him off on the interstate.
A judge sentenced him to ten years in prison. He is out and serving a suspended sentence until 2018 for First Degree Manslaughter.
In the last year two other men were arrested for ramming their cars into drivers and one was accused of pointing a gun at another driver.
"If you use your vehicle to harm someone that vehicle is a weapon. It is no different than a gun or knife, a baseball bat,” said Collum.
Feeding into the road rage can be dangerous.
"You don't know who you are dealing with. They could have gun on them, some sort of weapon and you don't know what situation you are getting into," said Collum.
The best thing to do if you’re confronted with an angry driver is not to engage them.
Police recommend if you are being followed you need to pull into a convenience store where there are a lot of people around. That can help diffuse the situation and also more witnesses can call for help.
AAA found aggressive driving is a factor in more than half of fatal crashes.
Additionally nearly nine out of ten drivers consider aggressive driving to be very serious or somewhat serious threat to their own safety.
