Road Rage Goes to School

Friday, May 16, 2008

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

Road Rage Goes to School

By J’AMY PACHECO

Decades ago, when I was a newly-licensed driver and working for a temp agency, I foolishly allowed another driver to bully me into doing something really stupid. I didn’t know the area well, and found myself having to make a left turn onto a very busy street that didn’t have a stop sign, as I did.

While I waited for an opening, the driver behind me became impatient enough to start honking at me. I’m not sure what they expected me to do – it’s not like I was sitting there having my nails done. But I was young and inexperienced, and soon found myself stressed enough to pull out in front of oncoming traffic. Apparently there is a god that watches over new drivers, because I somehow avoided being hit. But the next day, an older co-worker mentioned having observed the incident and cautioned me not to let myself be forced into doing things that were unsafe.

I think about that sometimes when I encounter crazy drivers. There is a 40-mile stretch of well-traveled freeway between my home and work, and I log a lot of other miles as well. It may be because I’m getting older, mellower and more judgmental, but I seem to see a lot more craziness on the roads these days.

A few weekends ago, for example, I was driving to Orange County when I saw a brand new car speeding up behind me — in the second to slowest lane of the freeway. As it whipped around me, it cut in and out of traffic, coming perilously close to other cars. That was shocking enough, but it was immediately followed by two other late-model cars exhibiting the same crazy behavior. I half expected the trio to be followed by a movie camera crew, or a string of police cars with lights blazing. But no – it was just three idiots in a big hurry to get somewhere.

I remember once seeing some teenage girls playing “road games” that evolved into some scary road rage on a main street in my town. One vehicle cut the other off, and the other started tailgating. There was a lot of shouting, a few near-misses, and finally, one of the girls ended up hanging out a window trying to take pictures of the other vehicle with her cell phone camera. I was really happy to see them turn into a mall parking lot, but always wondered how that whole thing ended.

I recently witnessed an incident that brought home the proliferation of rage-related incidents involving motor vehicles. I had just dropped my daughter off at her elementary school and was walking across the parking lot when I heard female voices yelling. My attention was drawn to the street, where I saw two sport utility vehicles waiting to turn left into the parking lot.

One was literally up against the back of the other. The driver in the front car was hanging out her window yelling at the other driver to observe the 25-mph school zone speed limit. The other driver screamed at the front driver to get out of her way, then backed up, drove up the shoulder to pass the stopped vehicle on the right, cut a sharp left in front of the stopped vehicle – turning into the path of an oncoming school bus – and, narrowly missing the bus, screeched into the school parking lot.

In seven years of dropping my child off at school, I’ve seen a lot of nutty behavior by parents. I’ve seen them arrive in pajamas, push their kids out of the car into oncoming traffic, drive out an entrance or in an exit, and yes, even shout at or point a particular finger at other drivers.

But that was the first time I’d seen an episode that I thought might actually lead to a physical confrontation. Fortunately, the “victim” car had the good sense to see her child safely into the school, and simply drive away.

School parking lots are insane places twice a day. They are nearly empty most of the time, but experience two periods of intense activity during which hundreds of parents wish to pick up their children as quickly as possible.

Late-arriving parents are the worst. I can’t help thinking that if they could just hurry at home, they wouldn’t need to run over pedestrians in an attempt to make sure their child is only ten minutes late instead of twelve. Sheesh.

I guess there is something about being surrounded by a ton of metal that makes some people feel anonymous or all-powerful enough to be willing to drive over other people, whether at school or on the open road.

I’d like to have a camera mounted on my dashboard so I could capture some of what I see on the road, and post it on the Internet. It probably wouldn’t slow anybody down, but at least some of the offending drivers could see how they look in action.

Like the rest of us do.