Road rage receives sufficient inches of newsprint and minutes on prime time, only when it shows up smeared with gore. Over a week ago, it was in the glare of media attention when it claimed the life of a motorcyclist in Gurugram.
The victim had been shot to death. A few days later, another case of road rage resulted in a shooting with one fatality, and this time, the issue managed to garner international spotlight, because it happened in Michigan, United States. If it isn’t happening in what is considered the world’s developed nations, road rage eludes notice most of the time.
The term is either overused or replaced with others that are ready at hand.
Reckless driving is frequently represented as road rage. And, when it does not lead to a shocking criminal act, road rage is often dismissed as “reckless driving accompanied by an altercation”. A few years ago, when a bunch of young motorcyclists rode dangerously around midnight, speeding down Beach Road in Chennai, an eyewitness account of the incident equated the behaviour with road rage.
In reality, it was reckless driving of an extreme nature, one that had the potential to claim many lives, but it missed the definition of road rage by a mile.
To deal effectively with road rage, it has to get called out when it really turns up.
Aggressive driving can be an element of road rage, but the distinctly defining feature is anger, leading to a verbal or physical attack of another road user.
As a result of the anger, the perpetrator may drive dangerously to harm the other road user. Sadly, road rage may be in each of us, lying coiled within us, like a serpent waiting for an opportune moment to raise its hood and strike.
So, it helps to find out where you stand on the ‘road-rage-ometer’ and make corrections, if necessary. If you are in the habit of gesticulating angrily at motorists for a real or perceived traffic violation, you are displaying stage one of road rage. If you are given to yelling at them, you have entered the next stage.
If obscenities are spat out through the yelling, then you have reached an advanced level. Often, this can open the door to a deadly, potentially life-threatening confrontation. Stage four is when you step out of your vehicle “to have a word with that fellow”.
People who are extremely self-composed in other challenging situations sometimes allow themselves this. When they step out of the vehicle, they have no inkling of what they could be letting themselves into, or who they are having a run-in with. Stage five is a tendency to ‘settle’ the argument with the fist.
In my own interest, I refuse to get into an argument on the road. I turn a blind eye to small dents in the bumpers caused by other motorists. If the damage is major, I will call the police. It’s simple and uncomplicated.
But life is seldom as uncomplicated as that, and can surprise you with a curve ball at unexpected moments. What if a motorist is raring to have a fight, despite your best efforts to defuse the situation? Sometime ago, a relative was drawn into an argument by a motorist and assaulted. The victim was with his son and the little boy was traumatised by the incident.
The best way to deal with road rage is to come down heavily upon it when it is out there in full view. The law has to be stringent with even minor forms of violence resulting from it.
Motorists have to be sensitised to report road rage when they see it, and not be gloating bystanders. In the digital age, when almost everyone is a smartphone-enabled photographer/videographer, this is not a tough ask.
