SARASOTA, Fla. — Florida Highway Patrol troopers arrested a Georgia man who they said pulled a gun on another driver this week in Sarasota.
The incident happened on Interstate 75 in Sarasota on Tuesday. James Weaver, 74, was driving a 2015 Maserati with kids in the car when they say he pulled out a gun and pointed it at a driver in another vehicle.
According to FHP similar scenes like that, and even worse, are becoming a regular occurrence on Florida roads as the state continues to see an increase in aggressive driving and road rage incidents.
Experts at AAA have said it is putting drivers in dangerous predicaments that are often life-threatening.
"You just don't know what could trigger the driver next to you," said Mark Jenkins of AAA. "It's summertime, roads are more crowded, people are more tired, driving impaired, and let's not forget the various inflationary pressures and higher gas prices that can be adding to the stress."
"In the Tampa Bay area I see it quite frequently," said Sergeant Steve Gaskins, FHP Public Affairs Officer.
In May, Crime Tracker 10 took a deeper dive into where this is happening most. Between 2016 and 2021, Hillsborough County had the most recorded cases with 5,097. That's followed by Pinellas and Polk Counties with 2,389 and 2,364 respectively.
Pasco County saw 1,457 cases. Manatee and Sarasota Counties saw 1,248 and 1,159 respectively. Hernando saw 1,005, Citrus saw 510, Hardee 160, and lastly, Highlands saw 159.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a Kentucky-based nonprofit that tallies shootings in near-real-time, there have been hundreds of instances in the last few years in which someone in a car showed a weapon in a threatening way or fired at a driver or passenger in another car.
GVA records analyzed by gun violence investigative group The Trace, show there were 728 road rage incidents involving guns in the United States in 2021, resulting in 132 deaths and 390 injuries. In 2021, there were 701 incidents, resulting in 102 deaths and 306 injuries.
According to The Trace, Texas and Florida lead the nation with most "road rage shootings." Between 2017 and 2021, Texas saw 467 cases while Florida saw 304. California saw the third-highest number of cases in that time frame with 179.
"I think it is all the more reason why you should be a courteous driver because you just don't know what could happen when you run into a situation that is escalated and it turns into violence," Jenkins said.
"If one person doesn't de-escalate the situation by creating distance, pulling over, and letting the other person go by, that's what we see, an escalation," said Gaskins.
Authorities said if you're confronted on the road, don't respond with aggression or try to retaliate. The best thing to do if you can't drive away is to stay calm, avoid eye contact or any rude gestures and call 911.
"Drive defensively and with courtesy," Gaskins said. "If everybody can do that, people would get to their destinations safer and we can reduce our fatality rate, our injury rate, our crash rate."
"If you feel like you were somehow disrespected on the road, just let it go, it's not worth trying to prove a point to somebody that's probably not going to learn the lesson," Jenkins concluded.
FHP suggests remembering as much info as you can if you find yourself in a road rage situation; the description of the person, their clothing, the vehicle, the license plates, and what direction they went. If you are being followed, FHP suggests to head to a police or fire station and honk your horn to attract attention to your vehicle.
