It’s getting hot in Canada — and as the mercury rises, so too are tempers flaring on the road.
With more traffic over the holidays and long weekends, there is no shortage of road rage incidents across the country.
“There is an inherent increase in frustration while driving in the summer,” said Julie Christiansen, a registered psychotherapist in St. Catherines, Ont., and author of The Rise of Rage.
“It’s hot, people are tired. It’s taking longer to get to their desired destination.”
A video circulating on social media earlier this month saw a man in Brampton, Ont., spit onto another driver’s face as he accused him of changing lanes. The two men are heard hurling curse words and insults at each other in English and Punjabi.
Last month, Quebec provincial police arrested two people after an alleged road rage incident in the Montreal suburb of St-Eustache, Que., that left two others seriously injured.
In another road rage incident in June in Wilmot, Ont., one man pulled out a gun and is facing a lengthy list of charges, according to Waterloo Regional Police.
A Leger survey conducted last summer found that roughly 80 per cent of Canadian drivers said they witnessed road rage over the past 12 months, but only half admitted to engaging in them.
Across the border in the United States, injuries and deaths from road rage shootings are on the rise, research from Everytown for Gun Safety shows.
For Canada, the number of recent road rage incidents was not readily available, several local police departments said when contacted by Global News.
“Things that potentially lead to road rage can include offences such as speeding, aggressive driving, or carelessness, for example, but those stats would reflect day-to-day measures, not specific to any one type of incident,” said Sgt. Melissa Kulik, of the Toronto Police traffic services unit.
These incidents can come at a considerable physical, mental and financial cost, not only putting the person being challenged at risk but others around them, experts say.
From broken bones and concussions to mild traumatic brain injuries, there can be a lot of “inherent dangers” involved with these incidents, said Albert Klein, a partner at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP in Toronto.
“It can be very dangerous, unfortunately, when people are blinded by their own road rage, and sometimes they act very erratically if they’re going to drive their car into another car,” he told Global News in an interview.
If it’s an intentional act that involves a criminal conviction, many times that means the person responsible will end up losing their vehicle insurance coverage, lawyers say.
Increased traffic congestion can lead to frustration, with people losing their temper — but more distracted drivers are also adding fuel to the fire, says one psychologist.
“We do know that distracted driving has gone up and that tends to frustrate other drivers and frustration goes hand in hand with aggression, so you could see how this could spill over,” said Tracy Vaillancourt, a University of Ottawa professor and president of the International Society for Research on Aggression.
The distraction stems from people using their phones and paying less attention on the road, which is why you’re more likely to see “erratic driving,” Vaillancourt said.
But there are also other factors at play: such as poor time management, self-entitlement or narcissism, and anonymity.
“We tend to see people behave very poorly when they feel they’re more anonymous, when they don’t have eye-to-eye contact, and they don’t see the distress they’re causing in others,” Vaillancourt said.
However, sometimes road rage can be an escalation of a prior dispute between two people who already know each other, said Daniel Michaelson, a partner at Neinstein Personal Injury Lawyers LLP in Toronto.
Christiansen said there are four main reasons why people get angry: when a rule gets broken, a boundary is violated, expectations are not met, and your goal attainment is thwarted.
“All of those things happen when you’re on the road,” she said.
Two years of COVID-19 lockdowns and polarization have also taken a toll, with less emotional regulation now than ever before and people just “letting it all hang out” Christiansen said.
“It seems to be more socially acceptable to just call people out, to insult them, to make really outrageous claims about them. And there’s no recourse for that.”
How to deal with road rage
Reducing the risk of a road rage encounter often starts inside your own vehicle.
Managing your time better so you’re not under pressure to get to your destination can help reduce stress while driving, Vaillancourt said.
Limit your distractions and if you feel like you were cut off, give the other person the benefit of the doubt and do not personalize it as much, she added.
“Instead of immediately assuming the person had hostile intent, if we reframe it and recognize that maybe they just made a mistake, then we’re not going to get so offended by it.”
Putting on some relaxing music, making sure your temperature in the car is regulated, and deep breathing are all helpful ways to keep you calm while driving, Christiansen said.
If you’re on the receiving end of the rage, Christiansen’s advice is to “just back off.”
“If you see that someone is driving erratically or they’re trying to antagonize other drivers, slow down, back off, get off that road. You do not have to engage.”
And if the situation escalates where your safety is threatened, call 911 immediately, Vaillancourt said.
— with a file from The Canadian Press.
