New Utah Road Rage Law Begins

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On July 1, a new road rage law in Utah went into effect. Only a handful of other states have laws specifically targeting road rage, so plenty are curiously watching to see how things shake out with this one.

Road rage fight sends motorcyclist toppling off a bridge.

Under the new law, cops will be able to bring enhanced traffic charges against violators. What this means is a class C misdemeanor offense on the road would become a class B if road rage were a factor. A class B would be a class A, and a class A could be enhanced to a third-degree felony.

Not only are the charges more severe, so are the fines and other penalties associated with them. And judges can take away someone driver’s license on a first road rage offense if the violation warrants such a consequence.

In addition, police can impound a road rager’s car, adding to the financial pain and inconvenience. The hope is such punishments will get people to think twice about engaging in road rage and that those who do it anyway will in some cases lose their ability to drive for a while.

We’ll see what kind of effect this has on the civility of drivers in Utah. Utah Highway Patrol says it receives about 20,000 calls a year about aggressive drivers. We wonder if with the new law people will be more proactive about calling police.

Hopefully more people stop raging out on the road because they realize it’s not worth the risk. But we also know drivers who engage in road rage do so out of blind anger, so they’re probably not thinking in the moment and are just doing. And that’s where we wonder just how effective this new law will be.

Plenty will be watching and analyzing what happens in the second half of 2024.

Image via KSL News/YouTube