It shouldn’t have to be said that driving is not a game, but judging from recent headlines, some people still take getting behind the wheel lightly, and often with deadly results.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation announced that deaths in work zones were up 22 percent last year over 2001. A whopping 2,800 crashes were reported in work zones last year, killing 18 people. The department said that’s the most fatal crashes since at least 1990.

Apparently, increased fines and a ubiquitous public-awareness campaign have not been enough to persuade enough people to slow down and take extra caution in work zones. With road-construction season getting underway, it’s an important lesson.

Another tragic event in the news was the death of a Twin Cities man in a road-rage incident. A pair of drivers &045; later described as &uot;two stubborn people&uot; &045; locked horns in a deadly game, passing and harassing one another for miles down the road after one cut the other off. Eventually, one of the cars skidded and rolled while trying to pass the other car. A passenger was killed; the children in the back seat, fortunately, survived. It turned out that the driver had been once convicted in a separate road-rage incident.

All of us are annoyed by other drivers at times, but taking it to the extreme by driving recklessly in an attempt to get back at another driver is just plain stupid. The road-rage trend is all the more disturbing because it endangers not only the people directly involved, but other drivers as well.

The road is already a dangerous place. Statistics show that car crashes are among the leading causes of death for many age groups in America. Driving recklessly in work zones or having a temper tantrum behind the wheel only make it more perilous.