Nearly 6 Million Americans Crash Into Other People’s Cars on Purpose

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 5:45AM EST · Published Jul 14, 5:00AM EDT

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Nearly 6 Million Americans Crash Into Other People’s Cars on Purpose — © Thinkstock

In a ground-breaking piece of research, the AAA found that road rage has reached epidemic proportions. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety revealed that close to eight out of 10 Americans expressed some form of road rage in the past year. Of these, 3%, which represents 5.7 million drivers, reported “Bumping or ramming another vehicle on purpose.”

In a press release, the foundation said:

Nearly 80 percent of drivers expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage behind the wheel at least once in the past year, according to a new study released today by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The most alarming findings suggest that approximately eight million U.S. drivers engaged in extreme examples of road rage, including purposefully ramming another vehicle or getting out of the car to confront another driver.

Jurek Grabowski, Director of Research for the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, stated:

Inconsiderate driving, bad traffic and the daily stresses of life can transform minor frustrations into dangerous road rage. Far too many drivers are losing themselves in the heat of the moment and lashing out in ways that could turn deadly.

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The figures in detail:

A significant number of U.S. drivers reported engaging in angry and aggressive behaviors over the past year, according to the study’s estimates:

Purposefully tailgating: 51 percent (104 million drivers)

Yelling at another driver: 47 percent (95 million drivers)

Honking to show annoyance or anger: 45 percent (91 million drivers)

Making angry gestures: 33 percent (67 million drivers)

Trying to block another vehicle from changing lanes: 24 percent (49 million drivers)

Cutting off another vehicle on purpose: 12 percent (24 million drivers)

Getting out of the vehicle to confront another driver: 4 percent (7.6 million drivers)

Bumping or ramming another vehicle on purpose: 3 percent (5.7 million drivers)

Age and testosterone are also factors:

Male and younger drivers ages 19-39 were significantly more likely to engage in aggressive behaviors. For example, male drivers were more than three times as likely as female drivers to have gotten out of a vehicle to confront another driver or rammed another vehicle on purpose.

Imagine the potential problems if all these people carried guns.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.