[originaltext]W: Welcome to Motoring Week. My name is Beth Williams. Today, we

W: Welcome to Motoring Week. My name is Beth Williams. Today, we will be speaking about the phenomenon that has, at some time or other, affected us all—road rage. You know the deal, some reckless, thoughtless motorist cuts in front of you on the highway or pulls out without looking and all of a sudden, the red mist descends and we seem to lose control of our thoughts and actions. Neil Adamson from the North West Motoring Association is here to speak to us today about road rage in general but in particular about a survey his organization has just carried out. Neil, welcome to the show.
M: Hi Beth.
W: First off, I have to ask you. Do you ever feel road rage when you are out driving?
M: Ha-ha, no, I don’t. Thankfully, I manage to keep control of myself while behind the wheel although our survey’s findings show that many of the motorists we encounter on the roads are only one minor accident away from losing their cool.
W: Right, tell us something about your findings, Neil.
M: We asked the question, "Have you ever felt like getting out of your car and confronting a driver you considered to be at fault for an accident or traffic incident?" We were astonished to find that some 68% answered in the affirmative and some 23% actually had left their vehicle for some incident or another.
W: Wow, those figures are high. There’s clearly a lot of risk involved in acting like that, wouldn’t you say?
M: Let’s put it this way. Every year, some 40,000 motorists die on American roads. We have estimated that somewhere between one half and two thirds of those deaths occur in accidents which have some element of aggressive driving involved. It’s been calculated that as many as one third of these aggressive driving related accidents involve a motor vehicle being used deliberately as a weapon.
W: So the definition of road rage goes beyond what a lot of our listeners might assume, that is, for drivers to get angry at the maneuvers of another motorist and to physically confront them outside the vehicle.
M: Road rage clearly involves that type of incident. Only last week in LA. a father of three was shot when he left his vehicle to argue with a motorist who had changed lanes carelessly and almost caused a collision. You’ll find people are more and more wary of leaving their vehicles—people are quite often so afraid of road rage, carjacking and so on, that they lock themselves in their vehicles and nothing will convince them to leave. But, and here’s the big but, road rage also includes staying in your vehicle but using it as a weapon against someone you consider to have slighted you in whatever way. Most road rage incidents we have looked into have involved motorists aggressively pursuing other cars with their own and often smashing into them to drive them off the road or just get a little bit of revenge for a perceived insult. The situation is getting out of control.
1. What can we learn from the interview about Neil?
2. What’s the percentage of people who left their vehicle?
3. How many people died in accidents related to aggressive driving?
4. What do listeners assume the definition of road rage to be?
5. What’s true about the case in L.A. Neil mentioned?