Episode description

Dean DeSoto has been teaching his driving class for aggressive drivers over the past 26 years. During that time, he has come to believe several things. One is that what goes on in the country will play out on its roadways. Another is that anger on the roads is getting worse. Across the country, the number of people injured or killed in road rage incidents involving a gun has doubled since 2018, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group. There is no uniform definition of aggressive driving across law enforcement agencies and no national database to track it, but DeSoto has been keeping his own tally, including cases in Texas involving guns, knives, ice picks, 2-by-4s, tire tools, PVC pipe, plumbing pipe, bats, hammers, shovels, hatchets, ball bearings, marbles, frozen water bottles, bricks, stones and, in at least one instance, a spear.

This story follows attendees of DeSoto’s class as well as a police officer who encounters rage from motorists in Texas. The piece was reported, written and read by Ruby Cramer. Audio production and original music by Bishop Sand.