High temps and hot tempers: US road rage boils over as country sizzles

Road rage incidents appear to be on the rise as the country grapples with soaring temperatures amid oppressive heatwaves.

Despite road rage incidents occurring due to a multitude of reasons, the rise in longer and hotter heatwaves this summer appears to be a major factor resulting in a spike in aggressive behaviors on the road.

Related: World experiences hottest week ever recorded and more is forecast to come

In Texas, which is facing record-breaking heatwaves and triple-digit temperatures, a 37-year-old woman was shot in the head and killed last Monday in the city of Hurst, in what her husband said was the result of a road rage incident.

Speaking to CBS, Paola Nunez Linares’s husband, Zane Jones, said that they were on their way to work that evening when the fatal incident happened.

Jones, who was trying to pass a car, said: “I completed the pass. I got into the right lane, and he started to zoom past me … But then he leveled off when he got to me, and he like moved over, like pushing me but not touching me because I moved over too.”

He said that he then showed his middle finger and thought that the other driver was responding similarly, until he realized that the driver had actually pulled out a gun.

“He slowed down until we were about like that, and he shot through my back left window and hit my wife in the back of the head,” Jones said, who added that he believed the driver fired at least three times.

In another fatal road rage incident in New York, what started as a minor collision between two vehicles led to the first driver slashing the other driver’s tires before being mowed down – and killed – by the second driver.

The collision between a sedan and a pickup truck in midtown Manhattan last week led to an argument between the two drivers, both of whom were male. NBC New York reports that the altercation quickly escalated as the pickup truck’s driver, 54-year-old Roberto Velez Alvarez, took a knife and slashed the tires of the sedan, according to police.

In response, the sedan’s driver, 28-year-old Andre Mosby, allegedly stepped on the accelerator and pinned Alvarez against a building wall. Alvarez was taken to the hospital and later died of his injuries.

In recent decades, various studies have emerged that indicate a clear correlation between aggressive road behavior and hotter temperatures.

A 1984 study conducted during the spring and summer in Phoenix, Arizona, found a direct linear increase in aggressive horn honking with increasing temperatures, particularly among drivers who had their windows down – an indication that they did not have a working air conditioner.

“Our research … involved having a car stop at a light at an intersection with a median that disallowed anyone to go around the driver – who sat still through a green light. We found that people only honked in short bursts (the polite reminder honk) when the temperatures were below 80 [degrees fahrenheit], but when they got above 90 [degrees fahrenheit], drivers whose path was blocked increasingly leaned on their horn for longer and longer blasts, and occasionally made hand signals of the sort they don’t teach you in driver’s education,” Douglas Kenrick, a psychology professor at Arizona State University and co-author of the study, said.

Another study published by researchers in 2018 echoed similar discoveries. The study examined fatal traffic crashes in the US from May to September of 2001 to 2011 and found a 3.4% increase on heatwave days versus non-heatwave days.

Speaking to the Guardian, Leigh Richardson, director of the Brain Performance Center in Texas, explained the various physiological impacts that hot temperature can have on drivers.

“Research shows a link between aggression and extreme heat and it can manifest in your daily life, affecting the way you drive, making judgment errors. Intense heat puts stress on our organs. The heart can start to beat faster, the brain gets thrown into the fight-flight-freeze cycle threatening our psychological safety,” said Richardson.

“When we feel threatened we can become more impulsive and reactive. Getting into a car that registers 108 degrees [fahrenheit] at the end of a long day, thinking of what errands must be completed on the way home, is overwhelming and the heat fatigues us. When someone cuts us off on the road, or won’t let us change lanes, our brain can quickly switch into the fight cycle, causing us to react in an agitated manner,” she added.

Stephen Benning, a psychology professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said hot temperatures likely magnify perceived threats among drivers, in turn triggering their physiological responses including their breathing speeds.

“[Drivers can] possibly breathe faster if they perceive their chest tightening up in some kind of way as their body just kind of shrinks in trying to not be as exposed to the heat. Sweating is definitely a big one and the possibility of heart rate increases as you try to circulate the blood faster to help yourself cool off through increased blood flow,” Benning said.

With temperatures across the country continuing to rise, experts have offered various ways to prevent road rage.

One tactic is to redirect one’s thoughts and reappraise the magnitude of the threat.

“Recognizing that that threat has likely already passed if it’s someone driving really aggressively … and saying to yourself ‘It’s already passed, the threat is gone, I’m letting them go ahead’ [helps]. Reappraisal of what seems to be a threatening situation into a nonthreatening situation can then help your breathing become more regular and your thinking to become clearer rather than getting caught up in how much you want to hurt the other person or get even with them,” Benning said.

To Richardson, staying hydrated is key. “The brain weighs 3lbs and is approximately 80% water, and cannot store water. Keeping your brain hydrated throughout the day can protect your psychological safety,” she said.

Other tactics include using sun shades for windshields and being aware that other drivers may likely be in a worse mood on a hot day, said Kenrick.

“Count to 10 before raising one of those hand signals to someone who honks at you. I personally try to think of aggressive drivers the way I think about guard dogs: when they bark I don’t take it personally – just think, ‘Down boy,’” he said.