CAA shares advice to deal with road rage after viral video
Number of road rage incidents "worse than it's been for a while" in Atlantic Canada because of snow
Gary Howard of the Canadian Automobile Association says a road rage video that has gone viral is an example of how frustrated drivers in Atlantic Canada are feeling after a long winter that has made getting around difficult.
"I would suggest that right now it's worse than it has been for a while," Howard said. "The snow, the height of the snowbanks, people trying to get in and out of traffic, even just trying to get out of your driveway can be testing."
On Sunday afternoon in Fredericton, Iain MacDonald's son took a cellphone video of Erik Bohnsack approaching the MacDonald family car before launching into a tirade at MacDonald for cutting him off.
Howard says the long winter isn't an excuse for road rage and he doesn't condone such behaviour, but he says more and more often CAA is seeing people in the region driving more aggressively.
"If there is ever a time to be more courteous this is it."
Road rage advice
In the video MacDonald apologizes to Bohnsack — as a way to diffuse the situation and not as an admission of wrongdoing — and remains calm. Howard says that was the right approach.
"If you see the beginning of any kind of aggressive driving give yourself lots of space between you and the other vehicle, avoid eye contact, don't wave your hands or anything at them and just really try and disengage yourself from the other driver."
Howard says if an angry driver does follow you, you should first pull over and let them pass, and if they don't you should continue to a public area.
"Don't go to your home because then they know where you live. If you can, find a police station or even a busy area like a gas station."
Howard's advice for those who are prone to getting angry and acting out towards their fellow drivers is to give everyone the benefit of the doubt.
"Someone pulled out in front of me yesterday and I came to the realization, they didn't mean to, it was an accident. Assume that people don't do things on purpose."
"When you try and get out of a parking lot, you can't really see around those big snowbanks, so if someone lets you out you return the favour later and so on."