PHOENIX — Road rage incidents in the Valley have already claimed at least two lives so far this year.
A total of eight known incidents have occurred as of April 16, according to media reports.
A recent road rage incident, which occurred on April 3, resulted in the death of a 10-year-old girl after she and her father were followed and shot outside their home in Phoenix.
Take a look at the map below for each media-reported road rage attack in the Valley so far in 2019.
Numbers tracked by the Arizona Governor's Office of Highway Safety show 256 incidents of road rage documented in 2018. In 2019, just the first four months of this year alone, the office said they have already recorded 155 incidents of road rage.
It was stressed that the numbers could be higher because several local law enforcement agencies were still using an old reporting system from 2014, which did not include road rage as a factor in crashes.
RELATED: What's being done to keep drivers safe with road rage incidents?
The Arizona Department of Public Safety defines a road rage incident as "an assault with a motor vehicle or other dangerous weapon by the operator or passenger(s) of another motor vehicle or an assault precipitated by an incident that occurred on a roadway."
Aggressive driving, according to DPS, is different from road rage and includes speeding or improper passing on the roadways.
Road rage is considered a criminal offense, while the act of aggressive driving is considered a traffic offense.
If you find yourself in a situation with an aggressive driver, officials recommend that you avoid eye contact with the other parties, ignore any gestures, and report any serious incidents by pulling over somewhere safe and calling 911.
For a full list of do's and don't's on aggressive driving, click here.
