Congestion contributing to increase in road rage shootings, AAA says

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Around 66 people move to Nashville every single day. To break it down further, that is nearly three new neighbors every single hour, and more people means more traffic.

Normally, congestion is annoying and a headache we all have to navigate, but sometimes it can become deadly.

“We are a growing state and in a lot of our Metro areas, we are seeing more and more people move to our state, and we are also seeing more and more traffic. The more that you put traffic congestion in an area, the likelihood that you’re going to see those road rage incidents increase,” explained AAA Spokesperson Megan Cooper.

News 2 spoke with Cooper after seeing several road rage incidents happen across Middle Tennessee.

On Thursday, March 28, officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) were called to Murfreesboro Pike after a man was shot in the head. Investigators are looking into whether or not the shooting was a result of road rage.

It comes on the heels of the MNPD arresting two people in connection with a 2023 Madison shooting. The arrests came 14 months after Timothy Fetter was shot and killed just outside of his family’s auto shop on Old Hickory Boulevard. Road rage was the motive for the shooting, according to investigators.

“The road rage might have happened somewhere else, but they hunted him and then not only shot him through the car, but when he got out of the car they finished him,” said Bruce Fetter, as he talked to News 2 about his son.

Middle Tennessee has seen its fair share of road rage incidents so far this year.

In Dickson County, investigators were called after shots were fired into a car on I-40 .

Over in Benton County, law enforcement investigated a similar situation on the interstate .

“Aggressive driving is already risky in itself, but then once those behaviors escalate into more of a road rage scenario, they can become very dangerous, and that is where we like to really help drivers to avoid when those aggressor driving behaviors do happen,” said Cooper.

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Everytown for Gun Safety ranks Tennessee as one of the top five states for road rage shootings, coming in at No. 4. They believe the solution is a mix of stricter gun laws on securing weapons and personal responsibility.

“Our instinct is to get back at the other driver or prove a point to the other driver, and that gets really tricky because you never know how the other driver is going to react,” Cooper explained.

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