Which of the following about the survey conducted by North West Motoring Association is CORRECT?

W: Welcome to Motoring Week. My name is Beth Williams. Today, we will be speaking about the phenomenon that has, at some time or other, affected us all—road rage. You know the deal, some reckless, thoughtless motorist cuts in front of you on the highway or pulls out without looking and all of a sudden, the red mist descends and we seem to lose control of our thoughts and actions. Neil Adamson from the North West Motoring Association is here to speak to us today about road rage in general but in particular about a survey his organization has just carried out. Neil, welcome to the show.
M: Hi Beth.
W: First off, I have to ask you. Do you ever feel road rage when you are out driving?
M: Ha-ha, no, I don’t. Thankfully, I manage to keep control of myself while behind the wheel although our survey’s findings show that many of the motorists we encounter on the roads are only one minor accident away from losing their cool.
W: Right, tell us something about your findings, Neil.
M: We asked the question, "Have you ever felt like getting out of your car and confronting a driver you considered to be at fault for an accident or traffic incident?" We were astonished to find that some 68% answered in the affirmative and some 23% actually had left their vehicle for some incident or another.
W: Wow, those figures are high. There’s clearly a lot of risk involved in acting like that, wouldn’t you say?
M: Let’s put it this way. Every year, some 40,000 motorists die on American roads. We have estimated that somewhere between one half and two thirds of those deaths occur in accidents which have some element of aggressive driving involved. It’s been calculated that as many as one third of these aggressive driving related accidents involve a motor vehicle being used deliberately as a weapon.
W: So the definition of road rage goes beyond what a lot of our listeners might assume, that is, for drivers to get angry at the maneuvers of another motorist and to physically confront them outside the vehicle.
M: Road rage clearly involves that type of incident. Only last week in L.A., a father of three was shot when he left his vehicle to argue with a motorist who had changed lanes carelessly and almost caused a collision. You’ll find people are more and more wary of leaving their vehicles—people are quite often so afraid of road rage, carjacking and so on, that they lock themselves in their vehicles and nothing will convince them to leave. But, and here’s the big but, road rage also includes staying in your vehicle but using it as a weapon against someone you consider to have slighted you in whatever way. Most road rage incidents we have looked into have involved motorists aggressively pursuing other cars with their own and often smashing into them to drive them off the road or just get a little bit of revenge for a perceived insult. The situation is getting out of control.
W: What do you think is contributing to this problem, Neil? Are people just becoming more aggressive and ruder in their everyday dealings with other people on the streets? When I knew you were coming on the show to speak to us about this problem, I asked my father if he could remember incidents similar to the modern phenomenon of road rage and he said you wouldn’t get much more than someone honking the horn loudly. We seem to have taken it all to another new, dangerous level.
M: I think there are a lot of socio-economic reasons behind this huge increase in aggressive driving behavior we are seeing. Here is one statistic you might find interesting. In the last twenty years or so, the number of miles of American highways has increased something like 1%, which is, of course, a tiny amount. However, in the same time period, there has been something like a whopping 40% increase in vehicle numbers.
W: And I suppose the result of that is ever greater competition for physical space on the roads and a consequent rise in stress levels among drivers.
M: Absolutely. Our roads are getting clogged up to an ever increasing extent, travel times are taking longer and people are sitting in near stationary vehicles getting very hot and bothered. This not only means people are more likely to react in a negative way when confronted by what is perceived to be inconsiderate other drivers, but it also means that, given 50 yards of clear road, drivers are more likely to cut in front of others, run red lights and so on, in an effort to make up for lost time in a way. That doesn’t make it something we can condone but it does help us to try and understand some of the motives that lie behind this trend.
W: Yes. Well, we’ll be right back after a short break...