Texas Researchers Study Behavior Behind Road Rage as Cases Climb

Every day for the last two and a half years, Christina Murzin has felt the weight not only of being a mom to her three kids, but also of filling the hole left behind.

“I'm trying to live big and boldly and for both of us. I'm trying to live for both of us because he's not here anymore,” said Murzin.

On February 11th, 2021, Murzin's husband Chris was driving through southern Dallas along westbound Interstate 20.

Police say he was near the South Polk exit just before 1 p.m. when witnesses saw Murzin, in his 2002 black Yukon Denali, and another driver in a silver SUV, possibly a GMC, engaged in a road rage confrontation.

They told the 911 operator that the other driver pulled a gun and fired at Murzin's driver-side window, hitting and killing the husband and father of three.

"It's unfathomable that somebody would value someone else's life so little,” said Murzin. "The future that we all thought we would have is no longer.”

According to the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety and Support Fund, cases of road rage involving guns have hit an all-time high -- on average, killing or wounding 44 people per month in 2021.

And those extreme cases are just the tip of the iceberg. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, over 1,500 are injured or killed by aggressive driving each year.

Now, researchers at the University of Houston are trying to get to the bottom of why it's happening.

"So far, when it comes to the road rage question in particular, what we know from this data is that this phenomenon is much more widespread than we thought,” said computer science professor Ioannis Pavlidis.

Pavlidis is leading the team that’s monitoring drivers across the state for behaviors that could lead to explosive and dangerous outbursts with the help of smartphones and watches.

After surveying more than 1,200 drivers, Pavlidis said his team tracked the vitals of 60 people in real time for one full week.

They paired that data with driver history and road conditions gathered through GPS.

They even used mathematical modeling to reconstruct what a driver's hands were doing while behind the wheel.

According to Pavlidis, the most surprising finding was that a majority of their subjects encountered some form of driver aggression.

“You see in this assembly, close to 70% encountered road rage,” he said.

Pavlidis says his team is still looking into why it's happening, but initial findings show stress plays a big role with nearly half of drivers reporting one or more phobias related to time on the road. And that has a physiological impact.

"This blue line is the heart rate of people in response to the speed when they drive in heavy traffic,” said Pavlidis, pointing to a video demonstrating driving behavior. "These people pay a heavy cardiovascular toll, meaning they have a lot of stress."

When it comes to solutions, Pavlidis hopes the data can effect change like how texting and driving was outlawed.

"A lot of this research, because of its social significance, seeps through the press like the interview today with you. And once people are educated, then they talk with their elected officials and so forth. And eventually, this has an effect,” he said.

He also believes his research can shape the development of technology like semiautonomous vehicles.

"You have machines, which typically are very nonemotional entities, interact with humans who are highly emotional entities. And eventually, as automation becomes smarter with AI and autonomous vehicles and this and that, machines, from just simple toys, are becoming increasingly our partners,” said Pavlidis.

Pavlidis believes it’s a change that can one day lead to safer roads, saving other families from the heartache that weighs heavily on the Murzins.

"If someone cut you off or makes you angry or something on the highway or anywhere, just step back, take a breath and just let it go,” said Murzin.

Two and half years later, police still haven't arrested the driver of that silver SUV.

"Right now someone's gotten away with murder and no one should get away with murder. That's just not how it should be,” she said.

Christina believes someone knows who’s responsible or remembers seeing the confrontation that day. It was the same day that ice led to a 133-car pileup in Fort Worth.

The family is offering a $57,500 reward for information leading to an arrest.