Cover Me, I'm Changing Lanes!

A new sport seems to be increasing in popularity on California freeways - shooting each other from moving vehicles. In just the last few weeks there have been seven shootings in LA, Orange and Riverside Counties that have left four people dead.

Here in Los Angeles, where most of the shootings have occurred, a police spokeswoman, Sgt. Catherine Plows, said on Monday that a victim of a shooting early Sunday in the San Fernando Valley described his assailants as a group of four or five young Hispanic men with shaved heads. The description led detectives from the police department's gang unit to look into the possibility that the shooting was part of an initiation ritual.

Sergeant Plows said that after being shot, the 19-year-old victim was able to get off the freeway and drive a few blocks before encountering paramedics who had responded to an unrelated accident. The man was treated at the scene and later taken to a hospital, where he was expected to survive.

The police say they do not know whether the other shootings might be gang-related. Highway shootings are not a new phenomenon here or elsewhere in the country, but the frequency of the recent attacks here has put drivers on edge.

This is nothing new to Southern California. Back in the summer of 1987 there was a similar rash of shootings that had everyone a little nervous. Five people died during that siege of freeway violence. Hollywood even made fun of the situation in the Steve Martin movie, L.A. Story, where in one funny scene Martin and his girlfried are driving on the freeway and carrying out a conversation as he exchanges shots with other vehicles.

I don't know whether we're seeing some sort of gang initiation, or just bad behavior on the part of short-tempered drivers. Either way, it's probably smart to make sure that when you wave to your fellow drivers you use all of your fingers.