
DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709200386

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   99 lines

ROAD RAGE RUNS RAMPANT HAMPTON ROADS FOUND TO BE WORST IN STATE.

More incidents of ``road rage'' were reported in Hampton Roads during a three-year period studied by the State Police than anywhere else in the state.

The study, which covered October 1993 to July 1996, counted cases that involved shootings instigated by a driving incident. About one-third occurred in Hampton Roads.

The next leading areas were Northern Virginia and Richmond. The three metropolitan areas accounted for about 70 percent of the state's road-rage shootings.

Traffic congestion is the most obvious explanation, a state police official said Friday. But little else is known about what causes some drivers to go over the edge and react violently to what often start as minor incidents.

The study only hints at the depth of the problem, according to Lt. Col. Gerald Massengill, director of field operations for the State Police and a nationally recognized expert on road rage, also known as aggressive driving.

``That's just the tip of the iceberg,'' Massengill said Friday during a meeting of Drive Smart, a community traffic-safety program in Hampton Roads. Many, if not most, incidents of road rage are never reported, Massengill said.

Those that are, however, often present a shocking combination of themundane and the maniacal.

In Northern Virginia earlier this year, two motorists began an argument while stalled in traffic. They ended up racing each other on the George Washington Parkway. The high-speed chase resulted in an accident and two fatalities.

A Virginia Beach woman became a widow in 1991 when a man in a Volkswagen fatally shot her husband as they were driving on the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway.

Four men were the targets of a gunman in 1993 as they drove on Interstate 64 late at night near the Norview exit in Norfolk. Nine bullets pierced their car. The front windshield was shattered and the driver and a passenger were injured.

Earlier this year, a Virginia Beach driver was sentenced to six months in jail after he ran another car off the road and then assaulted the driver.

In central Virginia, a schoolteacher cut off by another driver followed the motorist to a parking lot and shot out his tires.

According to a study done by the American Automobile Association, at least 218 people across the nation died from confrontations attributed to road rage from 1990 to 1996. More than 12,000 people were injured.

During that time, reports of road rage increased by about 8 percent.

``And I would submit that is a little bit low, a little bit conservative,'' Massengill said Friday morning during his address in Norfolk.

Nobody seems to be immune. When it comes to aggressive driving, it doesn't seem to matter what the perpetrator looks like or how long they have been driving, Massengill said.

One study in Michigan indicated that women actually are more prone to aggressive driving than men. Other studies have shown that all ages, economic groups and educational levels seem to be equally represented.

``The problem with aggressive driving is that there is no profile,'' said Massengill, who talked about road rage Thursday night on the CBS television program ``48 Hours.''

``We really are all aggressive drivers, because when we get behind the steering wheel of an automobile something happens to us.''

No studies have been able to determine why certain drivers snap behind the wheel.

``I do believe that congested traffic seems to cause a lot of stress and is probably one of the primary causes,'' Massengill said.

But incidents also have been attributed to parking disputes, minor traffic accidents, flashing headlights, slow driving in the passing lane, and failure to use turn signals, among other things.

Many of the serious incidents reported in the AAA study involved handguns. But drivers have assaulted fellow drivers using golf clubs, knives, dishes, tire irons and even eggs.

``Anything that is in the car when these people become agitated'' can become weapons, Massengill said.

Massengill suggests that drivers report any incident of aggressive driving soon after it occurs by calling in the license number of the offending driver. He also suggests that no contact with an aggressive driver, including eye contact, be made.

The other suggestion Massengill has is to relax behind the wheel.

``When you get in one of those traffic blockages, there is nothing you can do about it,'' Massengill said. ``Don't allow yourself to become one of those people who become enraged.'' ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

According to a state police study on aggressive driving shooting

incidents from October 1993 to July 1996:

109 shooting incidents statewide involved motorists.

35 were in Hampton Roads

28 were in Northern Virginia

13 were in Richmond

The 33 other incidents were in 17 other jurisdictions

Of the 109 shooting incidents statewide involving motorists:

84 involved handguns or high-powered rifles

25 involved BB guns or pellet guns.

Graphic

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