Road Rage Wreck Leaves Man With Serious Injuries in Richmond, VA | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

Most of the accidents my colleagues and I deal with as attorneys are caused by inattention, alcohol or drugs, or distracted driving. But police say road rage caused a serious accident in Richmond, Virginia (VA), on September 22, 2011, and are seeking the driver of a red pickup truck, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. The crash occurred at the Douglasdale Road interchange on the I-195 southbound and left one victim with life-threatening injuries, police said.

As experienced Virginia (VA) accident injury attorneys, we are appalled by deliberate wrecks such as this. Two years ago we reported on how three young people in West Virginia (WV) were killed in a senseless road rage accident. The accident also wrecked the life of the road rage driver, who rammed a pickup truck. He was sentenced to serve 10 years in jail for malicious assault and three years for fleeing the scene of the accident.

Last year I reported on a bizarre and extreme road rage case close to Woodbridge, VA, in which a man driving a Jaguar allegedly pulled alongside a dump truck and brandished a gun. The dump truck driver then hit the Jaguar and forced the car into a guard rail. Both drivers ended up in trouble with the law.

Road rage is more common than many of us think. A report commissioned by AAA revealed that more than 10,000 car crashes were caused by some form of road rage between January 1, 1990 and August 31, 1996.

We often see less extreme cases of road rage on the busy interstates around Norfolk and Virginia Beach, VA. As the I-64, I-264 and the Downtown and Midtown Tunnels linking Norfolk with Portsmouth, VA, back up, tempers can become frayed. The answer is to be patient. Losing your cool could lead to a jail sentence not to mention a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.

DM