Among the caboodle of campaigns on road safety in India, the issue of driving angry is poorly represented.
In November, 2014, a shooting incident in the United States triggered by road rage hit the news screens. The issue of road rage may not have reached such news-grabbing proportions in our country, but it sure remains a sneaky, silent killer which has a blood-soaked hand in many an accident but manages to stay out of the picture every time it deals a blow.
It goes scot-free because its role in an accident is not always established. A driver who gets into a shouting match with one fellow road user is likely to carry the anger for the rest of his journey and commit a costly error of judgement elsewhere. In such a case, nobody, except the driver, will identify the trigger for the accident.
Road rage, wherever we see it, has to be dealt with severely. Sadly, on our roads, it’s not. When it shows up, we just wring our hands, shrug our shoulders and get on with it.
Over a year ago, near Medavakkam, I incredulously watched the driver of a car display uncommon belligerence as he was trying to settle a matter with the driver of a bus ferrying employees to a company. His car hurriedly parked in a diagonal position, a couple of metres in front of the bus, he rushed towards the bus and then, managing to find some foothold, opened the driver’s cabin door and attacked the driver in a bizarre manner.
He held the bus driver’s ears and was pulling them apart with a force and a ferocity that were mirrored in the wild expression on his face. I wish I had captured it on video. During the incident, I was on the other side of the median. Grabbing my camera which offers the option of videography, I stepped out of my car. When I switched on the camera, it blinked feebly and died. It was out of charge. In any case, I could not have captured the defining moments of the incident. By the time I took out the camera, a clutch of motorists and pedestrians had persuaded the still angry car driver to leave. Nobody thought of handing him over to the police. I didn’t either.
What provoked the cab driver to act so violently is still a mystery to me. Whatever it was, it did not warrant such a reaction. It never does.
Such violent behaviour on our roads should get us worried. More so, our willingness to tolerate it.
