Losing Control of Yourself Behind the Wheel

March 23, 2017, Kitchener, Ontario

Posted by: Robert Deutschmann, Personal Injury Lawyer

You may have seen a couple of note worthy and shocking news reports in the last week about road rage incidents that were so completely unbelievable that they boggle the mind.

In the first incident, a male driver of an Audi SUV in Saint John, NB was filmed intentionally running over a man whose car he had stalked. The incident involved the Audi driver following a car to a residence where the car driver and the 69-year-old Audi driver had words. A passenger was speaking with 911 operators when the Audi driver drove through the parking lot, lined up the other driver who was standing on the road and ran him over at a high rate of speed. The incident was filmed by the woman on the phone with police.

Police apprehended the Audi driver 10 minutes later. The man was taken into custody and charged with assault with a weapon, dangerous driving, and leaving the scene of an accident. He is being held in custody until his hearing April 10^th. The man who was his was not seriously injured. He was very fortunate according to police given the speed that the Audi driver was moving.

The second incident involved a vicious attack by a man upon a woman with a crowbar. The woman had just dropped her husband off at work at 6:30 in the morning when she pulled up behind a car stopped in her lane. She honked her horn at him as she passed him and turned into a nearby house. When she got out of her car, the driver of the car got out with a tire iron and being swinging it at her. He was singing at her head but she managed to block the blows with her arms which were then broken by the man’s blows.

The woman was taken by ambulance to the hospital where she underwent surgery to set her arms. The suspect, a 28-year-old male has been caught and charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and possessing a weapon. He is to appear in court this week. Police credit the cooperation of the public with his arrest.

It is simply incomprehensible what was going on in these men’s minds. There is no justification for these kinds of assaults. It is estimated that half of all drivers have had a surge of road rage at some point, although most of us manage to control our emotional responses. According to Ava Cadell, PhD, a psychologist and instructor at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, most people who are arrested for road rage have had at least a dozen prior episodes of road rage. They tend to have poorly developed abilities to handle anger and conflict as well.

If you make a driving error be polite and wave to the person acknowledging you are aware of your mistake. If that doesn’t work and the driver is on a spiral downwards you should  call 911 immediately. If you are stopped or threatened lock your doors and windows, call 911 and start honking the horn to attract attention and get help. Do not communicate with them. DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR.     

About Deutschmann Law

Deutschmann Law serves South-Western Ontario with offices in Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Woodstock, Brantford, Stratford and Ayr. The law practice of Robert Deutschmann focuses almost exclusively in personal injury and disability insurance matters. For more information, please visit www.deutschmannlaw.com or call us at 1-519-742-7774.

The opinions expressed here, while intended to provide useful information, should not be interpreted as legal recommendations or advice.