CBC News: the fifth estate

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Airing
February 7, 2007
at 9pm on CBC-TV
Repeating
February 20, 2008
at 9pm
on CBC-TV

WATCH the fifth estate ONLINE:

Watch this story online.

Runs 40:31
REPORTER: Gillian Findlay
PRODUCER: Marie Caloz
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Christina Heidorn
Rachel Houlihan
Video available in Windows Media Player.

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ROAD RAGE TEST

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ROAD WARRIORS

Road rage, aggressive driving, idiocy – call it what you will, it seems like these days everybody's got a story of drivers being pushed to the edge. Experts say there is a potential "road rager" in all of us and with our streets becoming more and more crowded, the most unlikely people are losing their cool behind the wheel.

A ROAD RAGE STORY
Read an interview with Lucy Laporta and watch a dramatic recreation of her story.

Runs 3:15

Aggressive driving is thought to be a factor in two-thirds of fatal collisions and one in every two Canadians admits to being involved in road rage behaviour. So the fifth estate set out to investigate what's turning Canada's roads into a battleground – and what is being done about it.

Rage on our streets

the fifth estate takes a look at some of the most serious incidents of road rage in Canada – how a dispute over a parking space ended with a man being dragged by a car as horrified bystanders looked on; how the simple act of one driver cutting another off led to a high-speed game of vengeance that left a mangled heap of wrecked cars and bodies.

Swearing, threatening, running each other off the road and worse – what is it about being in a car that gives us permission to behave in ways we'd never dream of elsewhere? the fifth estate talks to Bob Coad, a self-proclaimed "super aggressive" driver to try to get inside the head of a man who believes he owns the road and is willing to come to blows with anyone who says otherwise.

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According to psychologist David Wiesenthal, the highway is "one of the last places where you can see vengeance played out every day" – behind the wheel of a multi-ton piece of metal that can just as easily be used as a weapon as it can for transportation.

Fueling the rage

Streets clogged with traffic, powerful cars and a slim chance of getting caught; these are among the factors that fuel driver aggression.

the fifth estate talks to experts in law enforcement, traffic management and driver psychology to discover that Canada is just waking up to a problem that's been heading the wrong way for years.

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