One in three motorists have witnessed physical attack

More than a third of drivers say that other motorists’ dangerous or illegal behaviour is their biggest concern when on the road.

The equivalent of 14 million motorists say that actions such as speeding, tailgating, drinkdriving and mobile phone use scare them more than anything else on the road, according to a study by the RAC.

The study also found that a shocking three in ten had witnessed physical abuse of another driver in the last year and almost half - the equivalent of 20m - had seen or been subject to verbal abuse.

The figures were uncovered in the annual RAC Report on Motoring, which questioned motorists on their own and other drivers’ habits and what concernsthem about driving on the UK’s roads.

It shows that concern around antisocial and dangerous behaviour is at an all-time high but that many of those surveyed admitted to driving illegally themselves, either by using a phone at the wheel, speeding or being under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Fear over aggressive behaviourhas doubled in the last year - to eight per cent - but other drivers using a handheld phone was the single biggest concern. Twelve percent of motorists citedit as their number one worry, but twice as many admitted to committing the offence.

The study found that despite drivers’ fears and tougher punishments, 23 per cent still said they occasionally or regularly used a handheld phone to make or receive calls and 17 per cent checked texts, emails or social media.

Young drivers were far more likely than other age groups to commit the offence, with half of 17-24-year-olds saying they had made or received calls in the last year and 35 percent admitted to texting or checking other messages.

Younger drivers were also the most likely to confess to drink-driving. Forty-four per cent of under-25s said they thought or knew they had driven while over the drink-drive limit, compared with 19 percent of all those questioned.

Worryingly, despite drinkdrive deaths reaching an eightyear high last year, almost a quarter of the motoring public– equivalent to nine million - said that they normally consume at least one small alcoholic drink whenever they drive to a social occasion.

RAC road safety spokesperson Simon Williams said: “All the fears associated with the behaviour of other drivers on the road have never featured as highly in our research as top motoring concerns as they have this year. This is primarily due to double the proportion of people ranking the aggressive behaviourof other drivers as their top concern this year.

“Drivers using handheld mobile phones, drink-driving, drug-driving and breaking traffic laws remained as number-one concerns for similar proportions of motorists to last year’ s research. This means people must have experienced some very disturbing aggressive behaviour on the UK’s roads in the last year for them all to rank in top spot together.”