Road Rage

            
             I walk to my car because work is finally over. I start the engine, turn on the radio and take a deep breath; this will be a long drive home. As I was getting on the freeway, I realized it would be an even longer drive home than I thought. Apparently, I cut someone off because I was brighted and honked at several times. I was afraid because this person tailgated me until I was almost home. In this case of road rage, I was lucky. I wasn't hurt and my car was not damaged; other people have not been so lucky. .
             Every time someone gets into a car and ventures onto City Streets they run the risk of encountering road rage. Sometimes they will become the victim of senseless acts of violence, and sometimes they will be the aggressor. Every thirteen minutes one person dies in a motor vehicle crash. The main cause of road rage is a sense of uncontrollable anger or violence in the driver. Many times, this violence has been present in the person since childhood, much of this violence can be traced back to acts of violence seen on television as a child. It is hard to believe but road rage and television violence have many similarities. The violence on television is capable of persuading a variety of people to doing unthinkable things. For this reason, the government should require all new television sets to include the v-chip. "The v-chip is an electronic means of screening out content, particularly violence, that the parents deem inappropriate for their children's viewing" (Thomas 65). If this law is passed it could significantly reduce the number of road rage incidents in this country because people would not be as prone to committing violent acts. They would think twice about acting on their anger because they would not have violent thoughts instilled by television in their minds. Road rage will be reduced if the amount of violence a child watches is condensed.
             Road rage is a broad term and can include excessive speed, reckless lane-switching, tailgating, running stoplights and signs, passing on the right, honking horns, flashing lights, and screaming and making obscene gestures.