A recent CBS news story revealed a disturbing trend on our roads and highways: road rage is on the rise. The article notes, “Fatal road rage incidents are up more than 30 percent since 2010, and were the cause of more than 1,700 deaths between 2010 and 2014.”
Residents of the Tampa Bay, Florida area are all-too familiar with this increasing problem. There have been several incidents of road rage in the Tampa area alone in the past two months, including one where a woman pulled a gun on a motorcyclist on the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Clearwater, Florida in April, 2016. Just several weeks later, during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, a belligerent driver was caught on camera deliberately driving over a motorcyclist and his passenger on US 41 in Tampa.
While road rage attacks cannot be prevented in all situations, Tampa Bay area drivers and motorcyclists can minimize their risk of falling victim to a belligerent driver by taking the following precautions:
- Use your horn sparingly
- Don’t shout or use obscene gestures
- Don’t tailgate
- Don’t deliberately slam on the brakes or slow down suddenly if someone is tailgating you
- Don’t drive slowly in the left lane
- Don’t engage with someone who seems intent on provoking a fight; unless there has been a collision, just drive away
If you or a loved one has been the victim of road rage resulting in an auto accident, call the auto accident attorneys at Ahava Law Group right away at (727) 362-1234 or (813) 626-1234. Your legal right to compensation for your personal injuries and damage to your vehicle may be adversely affected if the crash involved road rage. That is because most Florida auto insurance policies cover drivers who are negligent and cause auto accidents, but they may not intentional acts such as road rage.