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Serious road rage stories are all too common these days, including ones involving fatalities like what happened in Santa Rosa, California on Saturday, October 5. A Mazda driver, who was involved in several road rage crashes, caused a multiple-car accident that killed a mother, leaving her husband and small child hospitalized, along with two other people.
A road rage beating was delivered in a fast food drive-through recently.
According to police, the driver of a Mazda crossover had already been in at least one other road rage crash before he started repeatedly ramming the back of a Volkswagen Atlas. That caused the male driver to lose control, the VW veering over the median and into oncoming traffic.
A crash with a Mercedes SUV killed the female front passenger in the Atlas. Rather than stopping to render aid or at least talk to police, the Mazda driver just took off. He later got into another road rage crash, finally disabling his vehicle.
But the guy still tried to get away on foot, only police chased him down. He’s been charged with murder, Dui, and assault with a deadly weapon.
Police believe the Mazda driver might have been involved in two other road rage crashes before the fatal one with the Volkswagen, in addition to the one they already know about. If true, that meant the guy caused five separate wrecks in the same day.
Even if he was intoxicated, which is what authorities are saying was the case, that’s unbelievable. How anyone can just crash into another vehicle, let alone five on the same day, all because they’re mad about something on the road or just having a bad day is just inconceivable. There has to be something much bigger going on.
Either way, the fact is road rage is a growing issue all over. While laws can be passed to punish offenders, the issue is a societal one and has to be addressed at its root causes. The big question is what are those? And how do we fix things going forward?
Image via KTVU Fox 2 San Francisco/YouTube
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