Driving While Angry

01.15.2011

This morning, I was almost involved in an accident that would’ve been caused by an angry woman driving erratically.

When at a stop sign getting ready to make a left-hand turn, I noticed a car speeding down the street and decided to wait and see if the car would stop because for a moment it didn’t look like it would. When it stopped and I felt like my life wasn’t in danger, I started to turn and noticed a woman driver with a scowl on her face and a kid sitting in the front seat. There may have been a child in the backseat but I didn’t get a chance to see because mid-turn, the woman started to drive, flooring the accelerator and driving around me. I laid on the horn and yelled for only the air to hear, “You have a damn kid in the car!”

I could tell by one glance that this woman was angry and that she shouldn't have been behind the wheel. In addition to the danger she was posing, she was teaching a horrible lesson to her kid(s). I don’t know what happened to warrant such a reaction from her, and hopefully she wasn’t involved in any kind of an accident, but she certainly took a large gamble by getting behind the wheel in such a state of mind.

I’m not saying that I’ve never driven when angry. I have, and it's not right. I always feel silly once I calm down because no one else on the road knows I’m angry except that my hands are gesturing all over the place and I'm yelling or driving erratically. So what does that accomplish? We all gamble with our lives when we drive, so why do we choose to raise the stakes instead of taking a couple of minutes to calm down? And why do we increase the stakes even more with kids in the car?

I recently read something that has stuck with me: It’s better to lose a second in your life than lose your life in a second.

Be smart. Kids are learning.