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When it comes to road rage, we all need to simmer down

3 min read

The death of any 6-year-old child is an unspeakable tragedy, but the death one week ago of Aiden Leos, a Los Angeles-area kindergartner, is particularly horrible and senseless.

Leos was shot to death in a booster seat in the back of his mother’s car. They were on one of Southern California’s many sprawling and fast-moving expressways. The child took a bullet in the stomach that was fired by another driver in an apparent road rage incident.

Leos’ mother, Joanna Cloonan, said on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” last weekend, “He meant the world to me, and it feels like my life is over. That was my baby. I’ve never, never thought pain like this could exist.”

Odds are, Cloonan won’t be the last American in 2021 who mourns a child, spouse, family member or friend killed as a result of road rage. Typically, about 30 people die each year in this country when anger on the roads degenerates to the point where guns are drawn. Already this year, a 47-year-old Lancaster County mother of six was killed by another driver in North Carolina because the driver was apparently upset that the murdered woman’s husband had gotten close to his car while merging on a highway. In April, a 38-year-old man was stabbed to death in Schuylkill County when road rage escalated to the point where two drivers got into a roadside brawl. Also in April, a toddler was shot in the head in Chicago in a road rage crossfire, but is, thankfully, on a path to recovery.

Several studies have shown that we have become more hot-tempered on our streets and highways. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, incidents of violence behind the wheel have been increasing about 7% per year over the last three decades. The reasons? First, the amount of driving done by Americans has gone up, but the amount of streets and highways they can travel on has remained static, leading to more bottlenecks and frustration.

There are also many less tangible reasons. In a mobile society, our community bonds have frayed. When we barely know our next-door neighbors, how much consideration can we give to the anonymous soul who cut us off in traffic, or isn’t going fast enough for us? And, let’s be honest, anyone who has traveled through cities like London or Toronto can attest to the fact that there are plenty of opportunities for even the most patient drivers to lose their cool. But those cities are not awash in guns. Most corners of America are. The presence of those guns means that encounters that might have ended with dirty looks or shaking fists end instead in bloodshed.

We all need to keep Aiden Leos in mind the next time we feel our blood boil in traffic. Is the fact that some other driver made us grit our teeth all that important in the whole scheme of things? Unless you are a champion carrier of grudges and grievances, it’s probably not something you’ll even remember in a week.

Take a deep breath, count to 10, do whatever you have to do to calm down, and move on with your day.

It’s not worth your life, or somebody else’s.

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