Driven to anger

[TexasStooge]

FORT WORTH, Texas (Star-Telegram) - The near-collision with the speeding pickup was frightening enough. But what happened in the next few seconds was terrifying.

Nancy, a 56-year-old minister, had just dropped off her son at his construction job in Fort Worth when she turned in front of the pickup.

"I went to make a right turn, and here he came flying. He had to honk his horn and swerve to miss me," said Nancy, who asked that her last name not be used because she is concerned for her safety.

Both drivers skidded to a stop. Then the pickup driver pulled a pistol and pointed it at her.

"I took off down the next street," Nancy said. "I got to my daughter's house and I was hysterical. I thought he was going to kill me."

Police are looking for the pickup driver in the encounter, which occurred Sunday afternoon at Finley Street and Sylvania Avenue east of downtown.

Although police say such acts of road rage are rare, aggressive driving -- cutting off vehicles, tailgating and weaving in and out of traffic -- appears to be on the rise.

"You can drive down any freeway in Arlington, Fort Worth, any highway in the Metroplex, and see that," Arlington police traffic Lt. Pat Bridges said.

The reason for the increase is simple: The area's roads are more congested, and congestion means stress for drivers.

In recent months, the incidents have grown increasingly violent. For example:

• In Fort Worth, a 4-year-old child was shot in the knee March 22 after the driver of a speeding car made obscene gestures at his father, then fired once into the car's back seat.

• In Grapevine, a Bedford man was shot in the abdomen Feb. 28 after arguing with two men in a pickup about the way they were driving.

• Also in Fort Worth, a driver was fatally stabbed Aug. 1 near Loop 820 by an attacker who accused him of "brake-checking" -- or tapping his brakes to stop him from tailgating.

Last month, the Texas Department of Public Safety released a study showing that 219 accidents were related to road rage in 2001 -- well over the 90 that law enforcement agencies had recorded the previous year.

Fort Worth and Arlington police and the Southlake Department of Public Safety, all of which operate hot lines for motorists to report hazardous driving, say complaints to their agencies continue to pour in.

Callers to the hot lines are prompted through a recorded message to leave their complaint, a description and license number of the vehicle involved and the location of the incident.

The departments send an informational letter to the registered owners of the vehicles, asking for their help to ensure that they, or anyone driving their vehicle, comply with city ordinances and state law.

"It is at least nice for a change that instead of having to tell people, 'I know he was driving poorly, but there's nothing I can do about it,' now at least we have a tool we can use," Southlake Sgt. Jim Polley said.

Already this year, Fort Worth police have received 104 complaints on their traffic safety hot line, the majority of them about hazardous and aggressive drivers, Fort Worth police Capt. Harry Jones said. In 2003, the hot line fielded 251 complaints for the entire year.

Arlington has fielded 111 complaints this year and sent out 78 letters. In 2003, the department received 624 calls and sent out 379 letters, Bridges said.

Southlake has sent roughly 140 letters since the hot line's inception in September 2002.

"We probably have three phone calls for every letter that gets sent out," Polley said.

Although there is no way to measure the hot lines' success, police said they have seen signs that they have worked.

"We got a call from a company where they suspended one of their drivers for three days based on a hazardous driving complaint," Jones said. "We've also gotten calls, e-mails and letters from parents who said, 'We didn't know little Junior was hotrodding on Saturday night. Based on that, he's grounded for a month.' "

Polley once received a letter from a 16-year-old girl whose speeding and unsafe lane changes had drawn a complaint, resulting in a letter being sent to her home.

"It was about a page-and-a-half apology letter to me for having to waste my time to contact her," Polley said. "The letter went to the car's registered owner -- her father -- and her father told her she needed to write a letter of apology. It was quite eloquent."

Police said that when repeated complaints are called in about specific locations, the department sends officers out.

Bridges said the presence of police officers acts as a deterrent. "But you can't have people out there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There's just not enough officers to go around."

Polley has made a few personal visits.

"If we have a particular person who we received more than one complaint on, I have on more than one occasion personally stopped by their house and explained to them the errors of their ways," he said.

Scott Cooner, an associate research engineer for Texas A&M University's Texas Transportation Institute, said thwarting road rage and aggressive driving isn't just about law enforcement.

In 2000, the institute began a two-year study funded through the Texas Department of Transportation to look into the reasons behind aggressive driving and road rage and to try to find solutions.

Through focus groups and telephone surveys of residents in the Metroplex, Cooner said, researchers found that "aggressive driving, which is certainly a precursor to road rage, is certainly a daily experience for most commuters in [the] area."

The study found three types of incidents in which motorists felt most stressed and more prone to encounter aggressive driving or road rage: merging traffic because of a lane closure, congestion because of a traffic bottleneck and accidents.

To analyze the confusion and stress that come with construction zones, researchers conducted a test, directing motorists to use all lanes up to the merge point on Interstate 30 near Loop 12 in Dallas.

"People seemed to appreciate knowing what was expected," Cooner said. "Typically signs say, 'Left lane closed one mile.' That doesn't tell people what to do."

To reduce congestion, the Transportation Department is working to quickly fix problems that lead to bottlenecks.

"Whether it's re-striping or adding a short lane at some locations in between entrance and exit ramps -- they're small projects that improve the traffic flow a lot without a total reconstruction of the freeway," Cooner said.

Last year, for example, the Fort Worth Transportation Department district closed the Weatherford Street ramp onto northbound Interstate 35W to create an additional lane of traffic flow for the freeway.

"Our preliminary data shows that's been a successful project in eliminating a lot of congestion on Interstate 35," Cooner said.

To clear wrecks more quickly, agencies such as the Dallas County Sheriff's Department take digital photographs to help them diagram accident scenes, which are then mapped and measured on computers.

Traditionally, traffic investigators have had to physically take measurements at the scene. Fort Worth police use similar digital technology.

"It cuts down on the time that people have to wait, which we think directly cuts down on their stress and also on the likelihood of it escalating in terms of a road rage-type incident," Cooner said.

Francisco Maese of Fort Worth knows too well the serious results of road rage.

In December 2000, Maese's son, Nicholas, suffered a severe brain injury when the driver of a tractor-trailer plowed into the family's pickup east of Abilene. Witnesses told authorities that just before the wreck, the rig's driver was speeding on Interstate 20, honking his horn and blinking his lights to force cars out of his way.

Nicholas, now 17, cannot walk and suffers from memory problems as a result of his injuries.

"I'm beginning to see many people driving like crazy, like the world is going to end," Francisco Maese said. "It's something I don't understand."

Maese said he tries to warn others to be careful while driving but fears that his warnings fall on deaf ears.

"It's the way the human race is," Maese said. "We don't understand until it happens to us. I think it's the only way we understand the lesson."

Avoiding aggressive drivers

• Do not retaliate against an angry driver.

• Don't make eye contact with an angry driver.

• Don't make obscene gestures.

• Don't tailgate. Stay at least two seconds behind the vehicle in front of you.

• If you are being followed by an angry driver, drive to the closest police station.