If you’ve never considered the risks of being the victim of road rage, you should. While it’s difficult to quantify road-rage incidents, a 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 49 percent of people nationwide reported that drivers in their locations are behaving more dangerously than before the COVID-19 lockdowns, and about a quarter reported witnessing road rage often.¹ If you spend much time on the road, you already know it’s true. For whatever reason, people are driving more recklessly and reacting with greater aggression than ever before. Here’s how to handle it if you’re unarmed.
‘But I’m a Good Driver’
Maybe you’ve never even been pulled over, let alone had a minor fender bender. (Yes, those people exist.) Or perhaps you’re simply a cautious driver who takes care to follow the rules of the road. Driving recklessly isn’t something you do, so why would road rage affect you? After all, you know for a fact that you didn’t do anything dangerous or wrong.
This all comes down to the truth behind the old maxim that you can’t expect rational behavior from irrational people. What you did — or didn’t do — might not matter. It’s all about the perception of the angry driver. Sometimes it’s as simple as the other person having had a bad day. Other times, it may involve mental illness, drugs or just an overall lousy personality. It could simply be that the person is a jerk and you won’t know it until things go sideways.
Being a good driver is important, as is paying attention to your surroundings. But when you’re dealing with a raging driver, it doesn’t matter what you think. It matters what he or she believes.
Do You Have Secondary Force Options?
There’s more to defending yourself against road rage than relying on a gun. I can point to a time when my daughter — who was too young to legally carry a handgun — needed pepper spray to stop a threat while she was driving. You might be thinking that it doesn’t make sense to use pepper spray in a moving vehicle, and you’d be correct. Pepper spray is most useful if someone with road rage follows you and corners you. In that situation, you’re still in your car but are boxed in, leaving you with a cracked window and pepper spray. Use extreme caution before deploying it from the driver’s seat though because it’s easy to catch the edge of the window and end up with a faceful (and lungful) yourself.
Something that’s easy to forget is that your vehicle can be a force option. You’re not unarmed; you’re sitting in a massive metal machine that can be used to defend yourself. Granted, this isn’t the time to play bumper cars on a busy freeway, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use the sheer size of your vehicle to get away or to move a credible threat out of the way. Every situation is different, but know that you’re not required to sit there and let your window be smashed in. Hiding in your vehicle isn’t a great option either because it isn’t impenetrable (and the raging person could have a gun or another weapon that easily breaches glass and metal).
Although you certainly want to avoid a physical confrontation, you could find yourself in one. This is where force-on-force training and a tool such as a kubotan can be useful. And remember that just about anything can be a weapon if you wield it properly — and that goes for an attacker too. The person threatening your safety can use whatever is at hand to hurt you, and there’s no way to know in advance what he or she might have.
Lower the Temperature If You Can
There are a few ways to attempt to de-escalate a road-rager. Whether you’re at fault or not — say you accidentally cut off the other driver — don’t argue. Be apologetic if the situation calls for it. Your goal is to get away safely, not to make the situation worse.
So, how can you defuse someone’s anger when you’re both driving?
Expression means a lot. If you get angry and your face shows it, that’s likely to irritate the other driver even more. Shaking your fist or making any other gesture that could be seen as challenging or aggressive is a bad idea. Instead, you want to calmly communicate and apologize.
I get it: It’s easy to get angry in response to an unjustified attack from another driver. We’ve all been screamed and cursed at by some stranger in a car who feels we’ve somehow done him or her wrong. It’s difficult to react calmly in that situation, but it’s important that you do.
If slowing your vehicle down causes the other person to speed off into the proverbial sunset, perfect. Sometimes it’s that easy to lose someone. What isn’t a good plan is trying to speed up and outrun the other driver. That’s how wrecks happen, and increasing your speed will probably enrage the other driver further.
Take the next exit or turn down a different street than you’d originally planned. But take care not to do that if it isolates you because that opens the door to having no witnesses and a raging driver on your tail. And always remember that any fight that can be avoided is a fight won.
What’s the Ultimate Goal?
It’s impossible to entirely avoid a road-rage incident because you can neither predict nor control the behavior of others. Road rage isn’t about who’s at fault, and you need to keep that in mind. When someone is raging at you, the goal is to get home safely, not to win an argument with an unstable stranger you’ll (hopefully) never see again.
Following the general rules of the road and avoiding reckless driving certainly help. You might be frustrated after a long day, but don’t make it worse by cutting people off or weaving in and out of traffic. Being mindful of the drivers around you helps, at least to a point.
After you become the focus of someone’s rage though, your priority must be getting away or, failing that, de-escalating the situation. Getting away is often the easiest solution, but it isn’t always possible.
A few years ago, I experienced a freeway situation that went south. An armed man had stopped his car and gotten out in the middle of traffic. I was only one car away from him. In that moment, my best solution was to take my truck off-roading across the grassy median that separated the main freeway from a side road. Fortunately, there were no insurmountable barriers, and my truck was large enough to handle the terrain. That man’s rage wasn’t directed at me, but I was well within the range of injury or worse. Leaving by an unconventional path was an option, and I took it.
If you can manage to leave the scene safely, you’ve already won. There’s no need to justify your actions or defend your honor. De-escalate, get away, and do whatever it takes to get home with the same number of holes with which you left.
What If You’re Armed?
A firearm remains the great equalizer, and having yours available when you need it most is priceless. You can’t predict when that moment will come, which is why I and others in CCM so often encourage you to make carrying a regular habit rather than something you do only occasionally. Despite claims to the contrary, not many people carry their guns all the time. Time spent behind the wheel is one of the most common situations in which an otherwise-armed person goes without his or her everyday carry. That might be due to discomfort or because he or she can’t carry at work and that’s where he or she is headed. Or perhaps his or her gun is in the car, but local laws require it to be locked up and out of reach — a rule that’s always a bit of a head-scratcher if you really think about it.
In addition to the fact that many people don’t have their guns with them, even if they do, it doesn’t necessarily mean they should use them. Many factors come into play, including the challenges of drawing from a seated, belted position as well as the risks of violating brandishing laws or escalating a situation.
If you have your gun, make sure you know the right time to use it. It also helps to understand firearms use in and around vehicles. From bullet penetration to tactics, there’s a lot to learn, but classes that teach this kind of stuff do exist. One great option is Defensive Vehicle Tactics, taught by Dr. Andy Anderson. Let me just say that taking a quality defensive class taught by a doctor who specializes in emergency medicine is invaluable. You’ll gain knowledge beyond what many classes offer.
That said, you don’t have to take a vehicle-specific firearms class to defend yourself in a car. If you’re carrying while you’re driving, have a plan for how to maneuver in the confined space and how to draw your gun if necessary. You also need to understand what your ammunition can (and cannot) do. Not all loads are created equal. And not all defensive ammunition is ideal for barrier penetration, so check its ballistics and testing to ensure it’s suitable. Choose ammunition that can perform in the worst-case scenario, not just the best, and the same goes for choosing a sidearm.
Endnote
- Anna Jackson and Rebecca Leppert, “Many Americans perceive a rise in dangerous driving; 78 percent see cellphone distraction as major problem,” Pew Research Center, Nov. 12, 2024, PewResearch.org/short-reads/2024/11/12/many-americans-perceive-a-rise-in-dangerous-driving-78-see-cellphone-distraction-as-major-problem.
Can You Use a Vehicle as a Defensive Weapon?
By Frank Jastrzembski, Contributing Editor
The better question is whether you should. Use your vehicle to escape danger if you can, but that doesn’t mean smashing the gas pedal and indiscriminately ramming anyone who might be in your path. This isn’t Die Hard Trilogy or Grand Theft Auto; this is real life with real consequences.
Use your vehicle as a defensive weapon only if you’re facing an unavoidable threat of death or great bodily harm. Even then, you’ll likely be judged more harshly by a prosecutor and a jury than if you had used a firearm or another weapon in self-defense. Why? Because you’re in a 2- to 3-ton steel box, and using it as a plow to strike, maim or kill someone will likely be perceived as excessive force.
As Senior Editor Ed Combs previously wrote in CCM, “[I]f you decide to ram anything with your vehicle, you had better be prepared to explain yourself.” (See “Crash Course,” August/September 2023 issue, Page 36.) And you will have a great deal of explaining to do, so you’d better have a very convincing reason.
Be sure to add Combs’ words of advice to the self-defense mantras you have filed away in your memory bank: “If you can’t legally shoot your way out of it, and if you can’t point your firearm at someone over it, you can’t hit (or ‘nudge’) someone with your car over it.” (See “Leading Questions,” July 2025 issue, Page 34.) Now repeat it as many times as you need to until it’s scorched into your brain.
If you’re facing a threat and a window of escape presents itself — whether it’s an exit ramp, side street, grass median or gas-station parking lot — take it. Get out of the danger zone as quickly and as safely as you can. You’re not only dodging danger but also avoiding a world of legal trouble.
