Tampa Named 4th Most Stressful City

As a Tampa personal injury law firm we consistently hear about accidents that were impacted by stress on the area roadways, so we read a recent Forbes.com article with great interest. Forbes released their annual list of the nation’s ten most stressful cities this past Monday, and the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area made it to #4 on the list. The criteria used to measure the stress levels included six factors: high unemployment, long commute times, long working hours, limited health care, poor physical health, and limited exercise. Clearly this is a dubious “honor,” but it is something that everyone should take into account before getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle in the greater Tampa area.

Commuting is indeed stressful, and we have all had the experience of being stuck in the painfully slow stop and start traffic ooze that results when the police and paramedics have to respond to an accident on the freeway. You sit there as the clock keeps ticking and it gets more and more clear that you are going to be late for work or that important meeting. But the irony is that the minute you get past the bottleneck and the traffic pattern returns to normal, you immediately see people driving way too fast and often quite carelessly to “compensate” for the lost time. The only problem is that it is likely that this type of behavior caused the accident that slowed everything down in the first place.

High stress levels can reduce your patience, and that can lead to aggressive driving as we are suggesting above, and this can even escalate into instances of road rage. Another way that stress can and does impact one’s ability to drive is by inducing a lack of focus. To use the Forbes stress factors, if you are worried about your employment situation, concerned about health care access, or exhausted from working long hours, it is very likely that you are not paying 100% attention to the road.

As the Forbes list points out, we live in an area that is conducive to high stress levels. But that doesn’t mean that we have to let it get the best of us. Be aware of the fact that there are going to be drivers on the roadways who are impacted by stress who may be prone to aggressive driving, impatience and inattention. Drive defensively, don’t allow yourself to be drawn into the aggression, and do all that you can to remain calm and centered when you are behind the wheel.

If you have been injured in an accident caused by an overly aggressive driver or an instance of road rage, please contact us at 727-848-8892 to schedule a free consultation.