THEY call it road rage. But that phrase is often inappropriate. It offers thugs a ready-made excuse for inexcusable violence.

Every driver knows about frustration.

In our ever-faster cars and lives we are regularly reduced to a crawl because of traffic congestion.

Faced with the selfish behaviour of other motorists even mild-mannered souls gnash and curse.

Psychologists have become so worried about our increasing in-car aggression they have suggested we listen to classical music while driving to keep us calm.

But what happened to Jayne Cooper can never be justified on grounds of road rage.

She was driving her tractor on a back road near Pocklington when a driver blocked her path, pulled her from the cab to the ground and punched and kicked her in the head.

It was an unprovoked, brutal assault which has left Jayne scarred and afraid. She thought she was going to die.

This cowardly man must be stopped and caught before he attacks again. Please read our description of him and his car and report any suspicions to the police.

In the meantime, we could all benefit from reassessing our motoring mindset. An Intelligent Travel pilot scheme suggests that York's traffic jams could vanish if we planned our journeys better. That would mean less frustration all round.

Updated: 11:22 Wednesday, September 08, 2004