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Hundreds of Accidents Blamed on Houston Road Rage

Posted byHoumanitarian

(Yang Wang & John Tedesco, Houston Chronicle)
From fender benders to fatalities, from fists flying to guns blazing, enraged drivers in the greater Houston area have caused more than 900 motor vehicle accidents that injured hundreds and killed five over the last five years, according to crash data from the Texas Department of Transportation.

Road-rage crashes across Texas peak during evening rush hour, with nearly one out of four occurring between 4 and 7 p.m. Most of the time, angry men are involved, and the most commonly used vehicle is a truck.

One such incident, on Oct. 19, 2010, ended in the shooting death of 49-year-old Ted Mitsakos after he honked at a black Chevrolet pickup for cutting him off near the Southwest Freeway and Beltway 8. Security cameras captured Mitsakos’ white Dodge truck being aggressively chased by the Chevrolet’s driver and shot at along the way. After a bullet struck Mitsakos in the head, his truck hit an SUV, then smashed into an apartment bedroom at the Timbers of Keegans Bayou complex on West Bellfort.

…The 900 road-rage crashes reported by the DOT include only altercations that involve vehicle accidents. Overall, crashes in Houston and Texas decreased from 2007 through 2011. The Houston Police Department credits the use of stealth vehicles to target aggressors.

“Most aggressive drivers don’t realize they are passing a police vehicle until it’s too late,” said HPD spokesman John Cannon. “We’d like to think these efforts have helped to keep the numbers stable.”

The decrease in crashes surprised some. “I wouldn’t think road rage or aggressive driving is decreasing, especially in large metropolitan areas when we have more serious traffic congestion, which is certainly a trigger,” said Scott Cooner, a research engineer at Texas Transportation Institute who studies road construction to reduce accidents.

Houston’s largest likely spots for angry drivers – where incidents have happened repeatedly – are in the Galleria area and on U.S. 59 between Kirby and Weslayan, according to the Chronicle’s analysis of the data.
(Read more on this story at the Houston Chronicle)

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