The headline was surreal, and scary.
Arguably the biggest name in talk radio in our town was involved in a road-rage incident over the weekend.
As a friend noted Monday morning, it starts like an unbelievable dream sequence that makes you question your dinner choice from the night before.
Imagine someone arriving at work and saying: "I had this unreal dream in which Jeff Styles was driving on Highway 153 and then he eventually pulled out a tomahawk and got shot in the forearm. Crazy, right?"
Of course it sounds crazy.
Until it happens.
I know and like Jeff Styles, one of the stars at WGOW and a longtime media personality in this town. He is very good at what he does.
I do not know Nickolas Bullington, the shooter in the road-rage confrontation Friday afternoon. For all I know, he is very good at what he does, too.
And, as the stories swirl and the lawyers offer statements, the only thing I know for sure is Styles and Bullington are the only ones who really know what happened.
We all know one thing for certain. Road rage is real, friends, regardless of the parties involved.
Sure, we all know that a "take-my-gun-from-my-cold-dead-fingers" bumper sticker is not something to be trifled with. Nor is the guy in the old-school sedan with the "Glock9" personalized license plate. The truth is, our society's seething anger seems to have raised the stakes on confrontations everywhere, be it on the playground, the sidewalk, our workplaces or our roadways.
We are overworked and underpaid. We are always running late. We refuse to believe anything is our fault. We will always escalate rather than defuse. We are armed to the teeth, and we are growing more and more eager to use the weapons at our disposal. That's not an excuse; that's simply stating fact.
That's a dangerous and all-too-deadly combination for almost everyone with a driver's license. And while we all think we are as efficient as Hoke from "Driving Miss Daisy" behind the wheel, road rage is a dangerous two-way street.
From safe motorist.com, here are some staggering statistics for "aggressive driving" in our country:
-Two-thirds of traffic fatalities come from aggressive driving;
-More than 37 percent of aggressive driving incidents involve a firearm;
-Roughly half the drivers on the receiving end of aggressive road behavior - like horn honking, rude gestures and tailgating - admit to responding with aggressive driving as well;
-The number of murders and injuries caused by road rage has increased about 7 percent a year.
According to surveys from safemotorist.com, more than 2 percent of drivers actually admit to attempting to run aggressive drivers off the road. And those are the ones willing to admit to it.
Drivingschool.net puts it a little more simply, saying "Don't engage" with aggressive drivers.
Because who knows if they have a gun or a tomahawk - or who knows what else?
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343.