Two brothers in their twenties are being charged for shooting a father of four in a road rage incident while the children watched from the car a couple feet away. Joseph Marino and Nicholas Marino were arrested in south St. Louis after the shooting took place on October 22. Scott Thomas, 46, the victim pulled over his car to get a picture of the Marino’s license plate as the road rage prompted the two men to point a gun out the window at Thomas and his children.

    Thomas was shot three times while his children who range from ages 3 to 11 watched their father fall to the ground. The two men then got in their car and drove off leaving the children to call for help.

    According to CNN report “Nicholas Marino, 27, was later charged with first-degree assault and armed criminal action. His brother, Joseph Marino, 24, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon.” The victim was taken to the local hospital for treatment and his children were unhurt in the incident. 

    Sonoma State University being around 50 miles from San Francisco a busy city that brings a lot of traffic and a high population of people. Driving in the Bay Area can be scary and stressful for many people. The long commutes are something that is very common for people because of rent prices. Traveling over an hour to school and work everyday can cause high tension on the road.

    There has been multiple road rage shootings in the past couple months in the Bay Area alone. In an article by sfist.com it says “Expect heavier CHP patrols and copters on the East Bay highways in the days to come, as KPIX/ CBS SF reports that three seperate freeway shootings have occured in Concord, Livermore and Richmond. Two are being blamed on road rage.”

As population continues to increase in the Bay Area so has the traffic and the amount of people on the road. In an article by the San Francisco Chronicle it says “ California has the most aggressive drivers in the country by far.” A study done by Your Mechanic, a mountain View car service startup analyzed different data points and California took the first spot in aggressive drivers which included speeding, brake checking, tailgating which occurred every 6.6 minutes. 

    Road rage is involved in a lot of accidents and deaths on the road. It is now making it very unsafe to drive in general. Not using signal lights before merging is something that is very common in creating a road rage incident as multiple cars merge into the same lane or cutting other cars off. Aggressive driving is against the law in California. Impatient drivers and disregard for others safety on the road has brought anxiety to many drivers which has left many people to not drive anymore. 

    Drivers of all ages that drive with no regard for others put many lives at risk just to get a couple cars in front or speed pass multiple cars to make a yellow light. Learning to deal with road rage can help everyone on the road to avoid dangerous situations that follow with an incident or even worse an accident. Coming to a realization that you cannot control another driver’s behavior besides your own. It’s not always easy to remain calm when driving but it can help keep the roads safe for everyone.