The road can be a dangerous place. Often because of the people using it.

One day, when Reddit user Dirty_ole_fella was driving home, he encountered an extremely hostile chauffeur, attempting to block his lane change. Little did the man know, it would soon turn into a bizarre game of cat and mouse waiting for him.

In a post on the subreddit ‘Petty Revenge,’ he explained that the aggressor was so persistent that he followed Dirty_ole_fella into his own neighborhood. Concerned about potential repercussions, the Redditor decided to turn the tables and after a strategic detour, he found himself following the motorist.

Road ragers often appear as selfish, power-hungry, and vindictive people

Image credits: Prostock-studio (not the actual photo)

But when this driver encountered a particularly persistent one, he decided to fight back

Image credits: monkeybusiness (not the actual photo)

Image credits: dirty_ole_fella

Anger can seriously hinder a driver’s performance

Image credits: Kseniia Ilinykh (not the actual photo)

Turns out, emotional and irresponsible behavior on the road is popular in the area where Dirty_ole_fella is from.

“In Utah, there’s always angry drivers,” the Redditor told Bored Panda, adding that “every time you drive here, you’re going to encounter an angry person behind the wheel.”

But aggressiveness isn’t limited to this state. In fact, it has become a topic of concern in many places over the last few decades, and scientists have been studying what makes some people more prone to road rage.

Research suggests that young males are the most likely to experience it, although various environmental factors, such as crowded roads, can boost anger behind the wheel. However, psychological elements, including displaced anger and high stress levels, are contributing.

In addition, studies have found that people who experience road rage are more likely to misuse alcohol and drugs.

In studies of anger and aggressive driving, counseling psychologist Jerry Deffenbacher, Ph.D., of Colorado State University, found that people who identified themselves as high-anger drivers differ from low-anger drivers in five key ways:

• They engage in hostile, aggressive thinking. They’re more likely to insult other drivers or express disbelief about the way others drive. Their thoughts also turn more often to revenge, which sometimes means physical harm;
• They take more risks on the road. High-anger drivers are more likely to go 10 to 20 mph over the speed limit, rapidly switch lanes, tailgate, and enter an intersection when the light turns red;
• High-anger drivers get angry faster and behave more aggressively. They’re more likely to swear or name-call, to yell at other drivers, to honk in anger. And they’re more likely to be angry not just behind the wheel, but throughout the day;
• High-anger drivers had twice as many car accidents in driving simulations. They also report more near accidents and get more tickets for speeding;
• Short-fused drivers experience more anger, anxiety, and impulsiveness. Perhaps from work or home stress, high-anger drivers are more likely to get in the car angry; they also tend to express their anger outward and act impulsively.

We should be wary of engaging with these people

Image credits: Howard P (not the actual photo)

Experiencing aggressive driving on the road is common—roughly 8 in 10 drivers surveyed by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reported having at least one incident in the month before the survey.

Although every situation is different, it’s often not worth it to engage with these high-tempered people and oftentimes can be quite dangerous — the presence of a gun can turn such an encounter from an unpleasant few moments to a lethal incident.

For example, using Gun Violence Archive’s database to analyze road rage incidents, Everytown Research & Policy found that the number of road rage injuries and deaths involving guns has increased every year since 2018.

In that year, at least 70 road rage shooting deaths occurred in the United States, but in 2022, the number doubled to 141.

We can see the same trend when it comes to gun injuries, too: at least 176 people were injured in a road rage incident in 2018, with a staggering increase to 413 people in 2022.

These figures translate to a person being shot and either injured or killed in a road rage incident in 2022 every 16 hours, on average. So the police officer’s worry in our Redditor’s case was probably warranted.

Indeed, “the law enforcement officers were fine,” Dirty_ole_fella explained to us. “They didn’t overreact. And like I said, I was glad he went to them.”

Luckily, everyone returned home safe this time.”Even though I don’t know who the guy was, the cops do. That’s good enough for me,” the Redditor added.

When asked if he wishes he’d done something differently, all things considered, Dirty_ole_fella said no. “I think I handled the situation fairly well.”

As the story went viral, its author joined the discussion in the comments

Some folks even shared their own similar experiences

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