Another passed cars in the emergency lane of an interstate onramp. When a driver honked his horn, the aggressor pulled off the road, stepped out of his pickup and indicated he wanted to fight.

A third weaved in and out of traffic on Highway 410, tailgating and nearly causing a collision. When confronted about her driving, she responded that she had good insurance.

Call it road rage. Call it aggressive driving. Neither term begins to describe the bad behavior documented in hundreds of complaints to the Washington State Patrol in recent years.

Middle fingers are flying on South Sound highways. So are slushy beverage cups and other debris. Sometimes people try to run each other off the road. Occasionally someone flashes a gun.

In response, the State Patrol has made aggressive driving a top priority.

The agency issued 9,810 aggressive driving-related citations in Pierce and Thurston counties last year – up 63 percent in just two years. It issued 26,694 citations in King County last year, up from 9,874 in 2005.

Three years ago the State Patrol set up an online complaint system. It encourages drivers to report if they witness multiple aggressive-driving incidents in one area. And troopers use unmarked cars to target aggressive driving.

But troopers can’t be everywhere. And it’s clear from driver complaints and interviews with victims that aggressive, sometimes violent behavior is a regular occurrence on South Sound highways.

AN ANGRY VOLVO DRIVER

Like many road rage confrontations, Mike Mayer’s began with an expression of exasperation: He honked his horn at a driver who cut him off.

Mayer was on his way to work that day in April 2007. He was merging from Steele Street east of Tacoma onto Highway 512 when a white Volvo cut in front of him at the last second from the left lane.

The Volvo driver, who was talking on his cell phone, missed Mayer’s car by inches only because Mayer slammed on his brakes.

“This guy cut in front of me to cheat,” Mayer recalled. So he honked his horn.

That’s when the harassment started.

The Volvo driver slammed on his brakes. Mayer had to brake again. And again.

“We get out on I-5, he actually mashed on his brakes and came to an almost complete stop,” Mayer said.

The harassment continued along I-5 and onto Interstate 705. The Volvo driver would hit the brakes, forcing Mayer to do the same. The Volvo would speed up, then slow down to allow Mayer to catch up, and slam on his brakes again.

The Volvo finally left the highway. Mayer e-mailed a complaint to the State Patrol when he got to work.

MORE PUBLIC COMPLAINTS

The State Patrol began accepting complaints online in 2004. It’s part of an effort to focus the agency’s resources on key offenses – aggressive driving, driving under the influence, seat-belt compliance and speeding – to save lives and reduce injuries.

The online complaint form is intended to allow drivers to alert the State Patrol to problem areas – places where they’ve seen multiple aggressive-driving incidents. But it’s also become a place where drivers report individual instances of outrageous behavior.

Assistant chief Les Young said the agency can’t issue citations based on the Web complaints. But sometimes it sends letters to the registered owner of a vehicle that’s the subject of a complaint.

The Web site has spurred an increase in public complaints about aggressive driving. Last year the State Patrol received 2,514 reports from Pierce and Thurston counties. It got another 1,067 from King County.

Though the Web reports are useful, phone calls are more effective for catching individual offenders. The State Patrol encourages people to call 911 if they see aggressive driving. That can allow officers in the area to find and cite the offenders.

A RUNAWAY PICKUP

After shopping with his wife, Greg Hilchey of Olympia was merging onto southbound I-5 at the Tacoma Mall last April. Traffic was slow – too slow for the driver of the blue Chevrolet pickup who passed Hilchey on the right, in the emergency lane.

Hilchey beeped his horn and raised his arms in the air, a “What are you doing?” gesture that infuriated the pickup driver.

“He gives me the middle finger as he’s passing me,” Hilchey recalled. “My wife is saying, ‘I don’t believe this guy.’”

If the middle finger was surprising, what happened next was just plain bizarre. The other driver stopped the pickup and stepped onto the road. He gestured as if he wanted Hilchey to get out and fight.

Hilchey reached for his cell phone to call the police. But then a potentially dangerous confrontation degenerated into farce.

“He was obviously so enveloped in what I was doing that he forgot to put his truck in park,” Hilchey said.

The pickup started rolling, and the driver ran to catch up with it. He jumped in and sped away, weaving in and out of traffic.

40 TROOPERS ON THE PROWL

Last Tuesday, trooper Brian Hoshino pulled onto southbound I-5 just before 9 a.m. He was driving an unmarked 2007 Dodge Charger.

The Charger has a 340-horsepower engine and radar detectors mounted on the front and rear windshields. But you wouldn’t know it from any other car on the highway.

That’s the idea. The State Patrol uses 40 of these cars for its Aggressive Driving Apprehension Team – troopers who prowl Washington highways watching for bad behavior. Six troopers are assigned to cover Pierce and Thurston counties. Another five cover King County.

Speeding by itself usually isn’t enough. Hoshino said he’s looking for multiple violations, such as tailgating and unsafe lane changes. There’s no one behavior that constitutes aggressive driving.

Within 10 minutes of hitting I-5, Hoshino spotted his first aggressive driver. It was a Mercedes SUV going 82 mph near South 272nd Street near Federal Way. Though he was in the car-pool lane, the driver was riding alone.

The trooper pulled him over and wrote him a $217 ticket for the speeding and HOV-lane violations.

Within an hour, Hoshino wrote two more tickets. The first was to the driver of a Toyota Camry traveling 80 mph and tailgating on southbound I-5 in Fife. The second was to the driver of a Toyota Echo on the Interstate 90 bridge over Lake Washington. Hoshino watched her cut across two lanes of traffic and clocked her at 78 mph.

The drivers got tickets of $175 and $217, respectively.

Hoshino said he’s not looking for minor offenses. In the same hour he wrote those three tickets, he passed on pulling over several speeders. His job is to focus on the worst drivers. He said other drivers appreciate it.

“People have given me thumbs up, especially when you catch somebody going 80 to 100 miles per hour, in and out of traffic,” Hoshino said. “Everybody wants to see that person get caught.”

Young, the assistant chief, said the aggressive-driving patrols are making a big difference. He said the most obvious measure is that last year the State Patrol made 74 fewer death notifications than the year before.

“Can you possibly put a thumb in the dike? Absolutely,” Young said.

Hoshino also sees a difference. In his four years on aggressive-driving patrols he’s noticed a decline in the worst driving behavior.

But he said there will always be people who just don’t care.

Like the woman he clocked doing 105 mph who argued she was doing only 100. Or the guy who tried to run a woman off the road.

Said Hoshino: “There are people who are just jerks.”

A SNARKY JETTA DRIVER

You don’t have to tell that to Gregory Flores.

In March 2007 he was on his way home to the Bonney Lake area after picking up his 2-year-old son from day care. He was traveling east on Highway 410 when a gray Volkswagen Jetta rode up on his rear bumper.

When the Jetta passed him it was so close that Flores couldn’t see its turn signals. The driver then cut in front of him, nearly striking his car. Flores jammed on the brakes, forcing the vehicle behind him to follow suit. Both drivers sounded their horns.

The Jetta swerved into the right lane – cutting off another vehicle – and turned onto 214th Avenue East.

Flores was going the same way. He followed the Jetta to a home in Bonney Lake and pulled over.

A young woman got out of the Jetta and asked if she could help him with anything. Flores told her she’d almost hit his car.

Her response? She had good insurance.

“I thought, ‘You look very young and it’s probably your parents who have insurance,’” Flores said.

He told her he was going to report her to the police. She said, “Why don’t you wait here for them?”

Flores wrote down her license plate and drove away. She smiled and waved goodbye.

‘TIRED, FRUSTRATED AND CRAZY’

What motivates people to endanger themselves and others? What sets off an aggressive confrontation?

Hoshino, the trooper, said many people he pulls over are simply late for work.

“If they don’t get there, they’re going to get fired or they’re going to lose money,” he said.

Mayer, who had the encounter with the Volvo, believes inadequate highways contribute to the problem.

“We’re definitely talking about an area where there’s just not enough roads for the cars,” he said. “People just get very tired and frustrated and crazy.”

Hilchey, who had the encounter with the runaway pickup, understands the frustration. But he thinks much of it is self-inflicted. He sees people “trying to get where you’re going in a hurry instead of just relaxing and driving.”

When Hilchey was younger, he used to drive 10 mph over the speed limit in the left lane. Not anymore.

“When I was a speed demon, I had all that built-up energy and tension,” he said. “I felt that everybody was in my way.”

Now, at age 37, “it’s just the opposite,” Hilchey said. “I’m trying to get out of everybody’s way.”

David Wickert: 253-274-7341