American "road Rage": a Scary and Tangled Cultural-legal Pastiche

• Publication year: 2021

80 Nebraska L. Rev. 17. American "Road Rage": A Scary and Tangled Cultural-Legal Pastiche

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American "Road Rage": A Scary and Tangled Cultural-Legal Pastiche

Robert F. Blomquist(fn*)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 R
II. Popular Media Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 R
A. Early Stories: 1988-1995. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 R
B. Later Stories: 1996-2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 R
1. 1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 R
2. 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 R
3. 1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 R
4. 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 R
5. 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 R
III. Legal Media Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 R
IV. Lawyerly Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 R
A. Law Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 R
1. 1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 R
2. 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 R
3. 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 R
B. Legislative Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 R
1. Congressional Road Rage Hearings: Opening
Statements by Committee Members . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 R
2. Congressional Road Rage Hearings: Key Witness
Testimony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 R
C. Judicial Opinions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 R
1. 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 R
2. 1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 R
3. 1999 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 R
4. 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 R
V. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 R

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I. INTRODUCTION

Although most of us may be unaware of the phenomenon, the English language gains hundreds of new words and phrases every year- driven by a host of cultural variables such as new technologies, emerging social concerns, and ethnic interaction.(fn1) This "new word" creation is more precisely referred to as "lexical creation."(fn2) The phrase "road rage" entered the American-English language lexicon sometime in the late 1980s and early 1990s.(fn3)

Initially bantered about and amplified in the general media,(fn4) the new lexeme(fn5)-which sought to describe a hodgepodge of intentional, vengeful, irrational, stress-induced, mean-spirited actions involving motorists and, sometimes, automobile passengers, cyclists, or pedestrians -was gradually picked up and used by the legal press(fn6) and, eventually, by legal scholars in journal articles,(fn7) judges in written opinions,(fn8) and legislators in legislative materials.(fn9)

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Less formal and less legalistic than creative lexemes such as "new tort"(fn10) and "toxic tort,"(fn11) deployment of the language of "road rage" by the legal community has nevertheless had interesting practical and theoretical influences on legal reasoning. The purpose of this Article is to provide a cultural, legal, and policy "take"-a tentative, broadbrushed and descriptive analysis-on the implications of the evolving use of "road rage" parlance over the last decade or so. While there have been several psychological explorations of road rage,(fn12) there have been no systematic legal discussions of the topic in American law reviews.

What kind of human situations are addressed by road rage language in the popular press? Does the legal press, consisting of bar journals and legal newspapers, deploy the road rage lexeme in an analogous fashion to the popular press? How have legal scholars, courts, and legislatures used the phrase? Has use of the road rage lexeme helped or impeded legal reasoning and understanding? In addressing these questions, I shall proceed as follows: in Part II, I canvass a sample of popular print media accounts of road rage, with primary emphasis on major American newspapers. In Part III, I examine the use of road rage language in the more rarified context of the legal media (primarily legal newspapers and bar magazines). In Part IV, I describe and analyze lawyerly use of road rage parlance in law review articles, legislative materials, and written judicial opinions. Finally, in Part V, I draw a few short and tentative conclusions.(fn13)

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II. POPULAR MEDIA ACCOUNTS

A. Early Stories: 1988-1995

Use of road rage language in major American newspapers was a relatively rare occurrence in the late 1980s and early 1990s.(fn14) The earliest appearance of the road rage lexeme in a major American newspaper was a short, April 2, 1988, article in the St. Petersburg Times entitled "Highway Driver Accused of 'Road Rage' Shooting Series." (fn15) With a Mount Dora, Florida locale for the incident, the entire article stated:

A fit of "road rage" has landed a man in jail, accused of shooting a woman passenger who's [sic] car had "cut him off" on the highway. Robert Edward Muller Jr., 40, was in the Lake County Jail on Friday, charged with firing the shot that critically wounded Cassandra Stewart, 20, on U.S. 441 on March 19. Police said Ms. Stewart's boyfriend was driving when he was passed by a latemodel Buick. A passenger in that car then stuck a pistol out of the passenger side and fired one round, shattering a rear window in the car driven by Troy Washington. Ms. Stewart was wounded in the back of the neck. Police Chief Bob Roberts said an anonymous note led to Muller's arrest, but he would not disclose the contents.(fn16)

No major American newspaper article published in either 1989 or 1990 contained any explicit mention of road rage. In 1991, however, two such articles appeared in June-a mere four days apart. On June 20, 1991, in a lengthy article entitled "Don't Tangle With Tailgaters" in the Washington Post,(fn17) a journalist provided observations and suggestions concerning aggressive driving in the Washington, D.C., area. The article opens with the following lament:

A number of people have asked for advice on what to do about tailgaters. We all know who they are. No matter that you're obeying the speed limit, these pests rapidly approach from the rear to within, say, five inches of your bumper, and flash headlights, blow horns, and make it quite clear that you

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are in the way and HAD BETTER MOVE IMMEDIATELY. The temptation is to nail 'em with a death ray, but that won't do. So, what to do?(fn18)

The Washington Post columnist, writing under the alias of "Dr. Gridlock," provided his research findings on the subject, noting:

Dr. Gridlock checked around the area police, and they all say pretty much the same thing: No matter how irritating, move over as soon as it is safe to do so and let the pest pass. Do not tap your brakes to force him to slow down (he might wind up in your trunk). Do not make eye contact. Do not make an obscene gesture. Do not stop. The other person may be in a real emergency, or may be fleeing from a crime. Try to keep your blood pressure level and continue with life.

. . .

"We've heard cases of people ramming each other and getting into fist fights and accidents, and getting their car door kicked in. Best to just pull over and let the other driver pass."

It sounds simple enough. But there is a lot of road rage out there . . . .(fn19)

In a June 1991 article in the Boston Globe, entitled "Learning to Be a Boston Driver,"(fn20) a reporter discussed the plight of "Carol O'Keefe, 32, a married mother of one"-a resident of the Boston suburb of Dorchester.

Ms. O'Keefe, while attending to the needs of her infant son, had found it unnecessary to drive an automobile. "Life was blissful then. Nobody passed her at 90 miles an hour in the expressway breakdown lane. Nobody tried to ram her broadside. Nobody leaned out a window and gave her the finger."(fn21) O'Keefe was willing to shop locally and ride light rail urban transportation to downtown Boston while her son was young. But as described by the Boston Globe staff writer:

Now, all of this is changing. O'Keefe's son, Ryan, is now 21/2, and she wants to take him to the New England Aquarium and to the beach without the hassle of changing subways. Then there's the South Shore Plaza.

Besides, who knows? O'Keefe might even want to get a part-time job.

So, her heart in her throat and two hands clutching the steering wheel, Carol O'Keefe is about to join the world of . . . the Massachusetts driving public.(fn22)

O'Keefe, however, even though she was a licensed Massachusetts driver, decided to relearn how to drive in the Boston area by taking lessons from a driving school instructor; but before her first lesson, "she said that she was more nervous than on her wedding day . . . . because there are lunatics out there"(fn23) and because "[e]ven as a pedes-

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trian, [she] had sometimes felt the brunt of Massachusetts drivers' pent-up road rage. 'They don't stop,' she says. 'They aim.'"(fn24)

The frequency of reference to road rage language in major American newspapers increased after 1991, although there were no major American newspaper articles utilizing the term in either 1992 or 1993. The next reference to the road rage lexeme in a major American newspaper article was a December 1994 column in the Los Angeles Times from the "Metro Desk" entitled "You Can Fill Up in More Ways Than One at New Breed of Service Station."(fn25) This piece focused on Southern California automobile service stations that were exploring "new ways to appeal to customers' tastes"-from cappuccino machines to gourmet cheese, from fresh flowers to holiday gift baskets.(fn26) In a tongue-in-cheek reference at the end of the column, the writer compares American service stations with British stations: "In some British stations, motorists are treated to a...