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Understanding the dangers of road rage involves firstly understanding the causes of road rage and how reacting to same can actually have potentially far more dire consequences than the act which caused the road rage in the first instance.

There are two principal causes of road rage. The first and most common cause of road rage is where the actions of another driver causes us to be put in danger or seriously inconvenienced. This would be where such as a driver cuts in dangerously in front of us at high speed, it could be where they are tailgating us at similarly high speed, or it could be where they are perhaps driving way below the speed limit and causing us to be delayed unnecessarily with no opportunity for overtaking them.

The second cause of road rage is that which is likely to develop when we are caught in gridlock. As most drivers will know, the frustration of being stuck, unmoving, for what can be a very long time indeed can be immense and the temptation to do something which we would normally never do and know we shouldn't do can be overpowering.

Understanding the dangers of road rage involves considering some of the actions which we may be likely to take in the situations above. If, for example, a car cuts in dangerously close in front of us at high speed, we may be tempted to blast our horn, flash our lights on and off and perhaps even tailgate the driver as we do so. The dangers here are not only that we could cause a serious collision and put many lives at risk, we could find the driver in front of us suddenly drawing to a halt and emerging from his car for us to find that he is six inches taller than us and has the physique of a grizzly bear! The dangers here as he throws open our car door and drags us out should be quite apparent!

The dangers of road rage where frustration at being stuck in gridlock is the cause of the road rage include us attempting to make manoeuvres which are nigh on impossible. We may convince ourselves that we can get through that narrow gap in the traffic, when normally we would we would know for sure that we can not. We may even get so frustrated that we drive up on to the road verge and attempt to speed up our progress in this way. The dangers here are that we cause a bump with another vehicle or perhaps much worse by leaving the actual road.

The dangers of road rage also include the fact that we could get ourselves in trouble with the law, perhaps nullify our insurance in the event of a bump and perhaps worst of all, put innocent lives in danger. How can anyone begin to live with the knowledge that their moment of madness that is classed as road rage caused serious injury or even death to another human being? We can all but hope that we never personally find out.

Learn more about this author, Gordon Hamilton.
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