**Related Video Above: Don’t text and drive — Ohio’s new distracted driving law now in effect
CLEVELAND (WJW) — If it feels like Ohio drivers are more than likely to take out their aggression on fellow travelers on the road, know it’s not necessarily all in your head.
Ohio has been named among the Top 10 states with the most confrontational drivers, according to a Forbes Advisor survey. The publication talked to 10,000 licensed drivers across the country, comparing their answers across nine metrics — including things like have you ever been forced off the road or been tailgated or honked at (take a full look at methodology right here).
Find a list of the Top 10 most confrontational states below (interestingly, California and New York did not make the cut):
- Arizona
- Rhode Island
- West Virginia
- Virginia
- Oklahoma
- Alabama
- Connecticut
- Illinois
- Texas
- Ohio
In the rankings, Ohio scored a 77.82 out of 100, with Forbes Advisor saying Ohio drivers in the survey were most likely to be honked at, cut off or on the receiving end of an offensive gesture, as opposed to other metrics.
The survey found the top reason people might feel rage on the road was due to heavy traffic and that they were most likely to experience incidents on city streets.
Road rage shootings specifically have gone up across the country, Everytown Research & Policy reported, rising from 176 incidents in 2018 to 413 in 2022.
And in Ohio, road rage incidents of every kind have also gone up. Ohio State Highway Patrol told FOX 8 back in May that calls related to road rage occur every day. In 2019, OSHP recorded about 1,700 incidents in the state and by 2022, that number had moved to 2,043.
But what can drivers do if they find road issues escalating?
“The most important thing that you can do to begin with is to not engage with the other party,” Lt. Nathan Dennis told FOX 8 previously. “Don’t try speeding up, slowing down, matching them, getting around them — don’t engage with it. Just try to back off and let them be.”
If those tactics don’t work, drivers are advised to call 911.
