Road Rage

Last week there was this road rage incident involving a guy in a Mercedes Benz SUV and a taxi driver that a bus passenger that witnessed the altercation caught on video.

The video that went viral started at a point where the conflict between the two drivers had escalated to the point that the SUV had cut off and blocked the path of the taxi. The driver of the Merc and his companion had gotten off their vehicle and were approaching the cab.

A typical road-ragey argument ensued. It looked like the cabbie pulled a knife and the SUV guy responded by kicking the door of the taxi repeatedly in what looked like an attempt to prevent the now-armed cab driver from exiting the vehicle. At this point the Merc owner also pulled a gun and pointed it at the knife wielding person he had identified as a threat.

Because gun trumps knife, the cab driver was disarmed. The SUV owner decided he had made his point and left the scene.

But wait there’s more. The cab driver, whose manly man ego probably suffered a devastating blow, hurriedly went back into his cab and chased the gun toting Merc owner. A continuation of the video shows that the cab had cut off the SUV again and they were in another heated confrontation.

Considering the overall testosterone overload, it was a small miracle nobody was killed.

The video naturally made the rounds on both social and mainstream media. The protagonists were identified. Charges were filed and fingers pointed. The cabbie claimed damages while the guy in the Merc hedged behind lawyers. When he finally came out, his defense was that he used a toy gun and that the cab driver had mistakenly identified his mortal enemy.

The whole drama ended with the opposing parties shaking hands and agreeing to withdraw their complaints against each other that consisted of frustrated murder, physical injuries, malicious mischief and grave threats.
Was that a case of all’s well that ends well?

If you ask me that was a case where road rage was just a heartbeat away from killing someone and sending another to jail for murder.

This video was particularly interesting for me as I have often found myself cursing and almost wanting to ram my car into the so many “stupid drivers” that I regularly encounter on our chaotic roads that are that way because of the absolute lack of law enforcement.

Thankfully for me, I do not carry a firearm and I have not yet become so overcome with road rage that I have had to exit my vehicle to confront somebody. I do however routinely engage in passive-aggressive behavior while driving and can be a bit of an a-hole when I feel that my right of way has been violated or go on vigilante mode and feel the need to not-so-gently impress upon a particularly abusive driver that not everybody will just give way to them.

I know I shouldn’t engage with idiots and stoop to their level but I have a particularly soft spot for jeepneys that stop in the middle of the road and large SUV’s that feel like they own the d--- road and everybody should bow to them.

I’m hoping last week’s viral video will encourage me to finally listen to my late father’s nagging for me to play it cool, and consciously not succumb to my inner road rage tendencies as I have actually been enjoying not having a worried dad rein me in and remind me of the stupidity of my reaction when he is riding with me and sees my eyes harden after an encounter with a particularly stupid or abusive driver.

Our roads will always be chaotic and full of abusive drivers because the people who should be enforcing the rules that could prevent this kind of behavior aren’t interested or haven’t been empowered to do their jobs. We become prone to road rage when we have traffic enforcers who would dance rather than apprehend traffic violators; when the LTO is more comfortable with flagging us down for petty offenses like registration stickers and early warning device inspections, and when our “highway patrol” probably doesn’t even know what they are patrolling for, if and when their patrol cars are able to and have the fuel to go on a proper patrol.

Come to think of it, regular folk who get pissed at stupid and abusive driving cannot enforce any laws or teach any lessons by matching those driving styles just to prove a point because, contrary to popular belief, stupid and abusive people do not understand their own language.

Road rage is counterproductive. Nobody actually wins anything and the risk of injury, damage and death is too much a cost for whatever moral victory we may be after. If you can let it slide, just let it slide. If you cannot, then at least try to learn how. And if that is somehow too difficult to do, then at least get a decent dash cam for your car so you can at the very least have additional video evidence if it must come to proving your case in a court of law.*
Follow me on Twitter: @bindadu

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