OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Police in Overland Park give advice on how to drive, but that’s not their only advice.
"You really don't know who you're dealing with," said Officer Steve Parker, traffic detective for the Overland Park Police Department.
Aggressive and careless driving are linked to road rage.
Parker says those factors contributed to the 6,000 traffic crashes they worked in 2017. Around 10 percent of those are hit-and-runs or incomplete reports where police are trying to find the second party involved.
"A huge culprit of road rage is following too close because what it does is gets people irritated, frustrated, mad,” Parker said. “They start behaving in manners they probably wouldn't normally do, which in and of itself can be illegal.”
Many drivers have to drive every day, and police want drivers to ask themselves how often they have been driving to work when someone cuts them off, or doesn't use their turn signal.
Police have seen it all: drivers yell an expletive (or several); drivers wave their hands around or flip the bird out the window. Some drivers seek retaliation, or try to cut that person off in return.
"People say things to each other to the point where they exit their vehicles and that's where the crime begins," Parker said.
Around 500,000 people drive through Overland Park every day, so there are plenty of opportunities to get frustrated. Police say if drivers feel it's getting serious, leave it to the police.
"Be courteous. Don't be confrontational, and if someone gets out of their car and approaches your car, don't get back out. Get a license plate. If you got a cell phone and you're at a stop, take photos of their license plate, maybe of them, so that identification purposes become much easier at a later point in time. And then contact police," Parker suggests.
Parker insists they investigate road rage as a serious matter.
"It's not uncommon to have to go contact somebody in reference to a situation to get their side of the story because it hasn't escalated to any great degree," Parker.
Road rage should never escalate to battery, assault, manslaughter or murder. But it does at times.
Just recently in Lee's Summit, a young man was killed on the side of the road because of road rage.
Police urge drivers to just take a breath.
"It's not going to change anything in your daily routine," Parker said.
And try not to lay on the horn. Even making eye contact with an agitated driver can be interpreted as a threat.
"The best thing to do is try to ignore it," said Parker. "It's not worth it."
Researchers with the Department of Energy found aggressive drivers lowered their vehicle's gas mileage by as much as 40 percent: drivers waste up to a $1 per gallon because of bad driving habits.