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Inconsiderate drivers lead to aggressive behavior

By this point in 2020, there had been 407 deaths on Ohio’s roads. This year there have been 507. So what is to blame for the horrifying increase in the number of deadly traffic crashes: OVI? distracted driving? Not exactly.

“A lot of the problems we are dealing with is not only the aggressive part of it, but sometimes, and to just say it, it’s inconsideration, sometimes people putting their agenda ahead of the safety of others,” Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Robert Burd told another media outlet.

Selfishness and poor planning, in other words. Burd said drivers are, among other problems, not giving themselves enough time to reach their destinations.

“When they feel behind, they tend to get more aggressive. Whether they know it or not or intend to, but they tend to get a little more aggressive when they feel they are behind,” he told WKRC in Cincinnati.

When that kind of stress leads to road rage, speeding and other aggression, it can cause a crash.

Maybe returning to a world of meetings, deadlines, appointments and social engagements on top of the accumulated stress of more than a year’s worth of pandemic survival mode is taking its toll.

And, as Ohio Department of Transportation Spokesman Matt Bruning put it, “There’s no silver bullet, it doesn’t appear, to solving this. It just continues to be those same things that we have talked about for decades, really. Driving sober, dropping distractions, obeying the speed limit, and buckling up.”

It appears we need to add, leave in plenty of time to reach your destination without putting yourself and other drivers in danger.

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