How to handle aggressive drivers as road rage events seem to increase

Within the past month, WINK News has covered five road rage incidents. In one of them,  a teenager was assaulted, in another, a man was shot and killed. Just last week, a man shot at a woman’s car with a baby in the backseat.

There are steps you can take if you encounter an aggressive driver in hopes that you do not find yourself in situations similar to these.

Lee County Sheriff’s deputies say that Oscar Torres-Camacho opened fire on a car and left bullet holes.

Torres-Camacho’s story is that a couple in another car tried to run him off of the road and then flashed a gun at him. All of this because he didn’t go through a stop sign fast enough.

Despite the fact that his fiance and their baby were in his car, deputies say, he grabbed his gun and fired at that couple.

Katie Jerabek cannot believe that this happened. “It’s unbelievable that people can’t just stop and take a breath,” Jerabek said.

Jake Harris is visiting Southwest Florida from Nashville. “That’s, that’s scary yea,” said Harris.

The shooting on Thursday was the latest in a series of road rage incidents. Cape Coral Police arrested a man last month for attacking a woman and two young girls.

A video captured on I-75 in Collier County from two weeks ago showed two drivers cutting each other off and subsequently causing a crash. Last week, road rage turned deadly when someone shot and killed a 23-year-old man in Lehigh Acres.

Mark Heist of Fort Myers says it gets wild out there. “It can get scary out there. I tell my wife try not to get anybody mad because they might have a gun,” Heist said.

Lisa Goggin says you never know who could have a gun. “You don’t know who has a gun and who might shoot so that’s terrifying,” Goggin said.

Jerabek says she’s had a terrifying road rage incident of her own. “He was literally like rolled his window down and chucked his fist at me and I thought ‘Oh my goodness’. I reached for my glove box and I was like ‘Ok do I need my Mace? Like this is scary,'” she said.

So, what can drivers do to protect themselves from a scary road rage situation? The AAA Foundation for Safety has a few recommendations:

• do not react to an aggressive driver
• meaning no gestures of eye contact
• if something does occur, call 911 and stay on the line until help arrives