To help ease "Carmageddon" tension, a Los Angeles psychiatrist advises Southern California drivers to protect themselves from becoming victims of road rage during the 405 freeway closure.
The closing of the highway this weekend, dubbed "Carmageddon," is expected to cause massive traffic jams, but Dr. Waguih William IsHak, medical director of Outpatient Psychiatry Services at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, says "what starts out as stressful could become catastrophic if people are not prepared."
"If you cannot avoid the area surrounding the freeway closure, the best thing you can do is prevent yourself from spiraling into rage and protect yourself from other people displaying road rage at you," IsHak says in a statement.
Road rage is different from regular, everyday anger because there may be a "trigger" that causes a driver to lose their temper while behind the wheel that occurs so fast and so intensely a car can become a deadly weapon, IsHak says.
"The trigger is usually something another driver does, a driving error, such as cutting other drivers off, changing lanes without warning, sudden stopping, going too slow, tailgating and texting," IsHak says.
If a driver angers another driver, IsHak advises displaying common courtesy such as waving apologetically or mouthing "I'm sorry," but avoid prolonged eye contact after making your apology because someone blinded by anger could misconstrue eye contact as challenging them to a fight, UPI.com reports.
