This news story was reported in the San Francisco examiner:

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors say a jury has convicted a Maryland man of murder in a 1990 road rage incident in Washington. Forty-two-year-old John B. Holmes of Silver Spring was convicted on Monday. He will be sentenced on Oct. 29. On July 13, 1990, 21-year-old Ronald Jones Jr. was driving with three friends when he was cut off by a car driven by Holmes. Prosecutors say when the two cars stopped at an intersection, Holmes shot Jones four times, then drove off. Jones died a short time later. One of Jones’ passengers was shot but survived. Although the incident got extensive media coverage, it was years before a witness identified Holmes as a suspect. Seventeen years after the crime, the surviving victim identified Holmes from a photo array.

After a significant amount of online research it is speculative as to what exactly causes road rage. Rather it appears to be a spectrum of driving related emotions with the extreme being represented by the story above. People have been reportedly expressing severe and sometimes violent rage against others related to driving incidents. The popular media typically reports the last encountered outcome of a rage rage incident. It doesn’t seem logical that someone would brandish a weapon, or worse yet, fire and kill somebody in a car becuase of a discourteous driving action. But, unfortunately it happens to seemingly peaceful, law abiding citizens.  We are experts in Georgia personal injury law and not psychologists, however, we want to examine this social issue closer. This blog post highlights a series of three recent road rage incidents on Georgia highways. Click here to read about the these road rage incidents. One incident involves a man who brandished a handgun some years ago, who lied about the incident and is now running for political office in Cobb County.

The seemingly “Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde-like” activities of drivers is well documented. According to famed British psychologist Hans J. Eysenck notes that known personality factors such as sociability or temperament, are not good predictors of behavior. In other words, a sociable person may act unsociable in any situation, if the right combination of circumstances occur. Or, a cool tempered individual may all of a sudden start snapping at others.

In other words anyone can be affected by road rage. It is our ability to recognize the anger triggers and act accordingly to defuse the situation. But, we still need to answer the question of what causes road rage. No simple answer, here is the results of the online research we found.

According to Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl it is the frequency and reactions to driving stresses which increase the likelihood of road rage. The stressful factors include:

immobility (cannot move in driver seat), constriction on the roadway, road regulations which inspire rebellion, lack of control of traffic, being put in danger, territoriality related to space around vehicle, driver diversity in culture and beliefs, multi-tasking drivers, denying our mistakes or driving digressions, learned cynicism towards driving from parents,  loss of objectivity about our driving habits, venting anger over a driving incident,  traffic unpredictability,  ambiguity of communication and gestures related to driving, under-trained in emotional intelligence.

Any number of the above mentioned, or combination’s can set someone off. In addition life related stresses can also compound these scenarios, including the loss of a job, family stress, financial stress, etc. Keep these in mind whenever driving on the road and are tempted to retaliate for someone’s driving transgressions.

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