While we’re all on edge from the coronavirus, road rage is bubbling up

It should be no surprise that motorists shooting at each other or brandishing their weaponry is not uncommon on the roads of Georgia, here where I live.

Carrying a gun in one’s vehicle for protection is fairly routine. And some drivers “protect” themselves from all sorts of things, whether it’s getting cut off, being inconvenienced by someone driving too slowly or feeling threatened if another motorist looks at them. A stink eye can get a fellow nearly killed around here.

Just ask Shane Doby and his wife, Hannah.

I talked with the Dobys as they left Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital, where Shane is receiving treatment after being shot in the mouth with a .45-caliber handgun last week on the interstate. The couple were heading to an afternoon hike when it happened.

“I guess the guy was just having a bad day,” Doby said with a lick of understatement. “I got lucky,” he added, looking as good as a guy who was shot in the mouth a week ago can look.

The Dobys met with doctors Tuesday. They’re going to wire his jaw shut because it is broken in two places. They must rebuild the palate, perform lip reconstruction and hope his jaw bone heals to allow for implants to replace the numerous missing teeth.

All this came about, apparently, because Doby was not driving fast enough on the highway to suit the sociopath behind him.

The road rage incident is one of many I found in news stories from the past few months. Traffic may not be what it was before the pandemic, but we’re wound tighter these days. People are carrying all sorts of emotional baggage, whether it be a layoff, unpaid bills piling up or just running late. Or maybe they’re mean and crazy.

In 2016, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety did a study and discovered that nearly 80% of drivers had engaged in some sort of “significant anger, aggression or road rage” during the previous year.

Here’s what drivers admitted: Purposefully tailgating (51%), honking to show anger (45%), making angry gestures (33%), trying to block another vehicle from changing lanes (24%).

And while no one fessed up to actually shooting at someone, about 4% admitted to getting out of their vehicle to confront another driver and, unbelievably, 3% of those queried said they had bumped another vehicle on purpose.

There is sort of an Everyman feeling about highway lunacy. We’ve all been a party to some sort of road rage or at least have been a front-seat witness. There’s even a new Russell Crowe flick out about road rage called “Unhinged.”

Shane Doby admits to being somewhat of a slow and cautious driver, which was his undoing.

As he and Hannah were headed to their hike at Stone Mountain from their Henry County home, Shane glanced up, saw a black Chevy Silverado 2500 on the tail of his Volvo.

“He was so close behind that you couldn’t slip in a piece of paper,” said Hannah, who did most of the talking because she was not shot in the mouth.

Before you ask, no, Shane wasn’t clogging the left lane. He was over to the right, minding his own business. Next thing you know, the tailgater had pulled along the driver’s side and Shane, whose window was open, mouthed the word, “What?”

The guy had his window down too. The Dobys expected him to scream his displeasure. Instead, he pointed a gun at them.

Now the Dobys, who have five kids between them, must endure health issues and medical bills. He was recently laid off from a furniture company, and her hours doing home health care have been cut drastically because of COVID-19. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the family. (It has a graphic photo of Shane’s injury.) Police have also released a sketch of the assailant.

Hopefully, someone knows a Silverado driver who looks like the drawing.

In the meantime, let’s try to be nicer out there.

This story was originally published September 12, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "While we’re all on edge from the coronavirus, road rage is bubbling up."