Who to blame for this inexplicable road rage burst?
nce upon a time, driving was considered the best stress-buster, much like shopping, hogging or walking. But driving on Delhi’s manic roads has become a cause for many a violent death, altercations, thrashings, abuses and jail-terms. The Khan Market incident, in which a perfectly normal man with a sound job of a pilot allegedly ran over a restaurant owner after a car graze in the market’s congested parking lane, was just one in a series of many such cases when a usually pacifist, peace-loving person from an educated background and with a sound career has got into a tussle with a fellow driver and led himself into jail due to violent behaviour.
Actually road rage cases continue to confound me. You really don’t know who to blame it on — the city and its inherent aggression, the ever-increasing traffic stress, the job woes, the cops who look the other way, the worsening emotional volatility of the Capital’s population as a whole or all these factors put together. Whatever it is, the aggression on roads has become a huge problem and needs to be tackled with the same intensity as the police force would pursue a murder or a rape case — if that is, it is in the mood to work and no big guns are involved requiring a cover-up.
We all know that the population — of vehicles — has seen an explosion on our roads. Even the ever-expanding infrastructure is unable to deal with the quantum of traffic that it has to ferry daily. Once the metro came, everyone thought the roads will get some reprieve. But Delhi’s woes only expanded much like its transport. Now, not just the metro is spilling over but also the roads and its buses, cars, two-wheelers, and the most recently added menaces — metro ferry services.
Really, think about it. Could that pilot have imagined that morning that he would be involved as a suspect in running over another man in a fit of rage? Not his profile at all, but there is something in Delhi’s situation which has regularly been triggering such behaviour among the least suspect people. Mostly road rage cases are unexplainable. You are unable to fathom yourself what drove you to it. Talk to a shrink or a social psychologist and he will say it is the fallout of stress leading to rage and temporary mental instability. Talk to town planners and they say it is inevitable because of the crass and totally unplanned urbanisation that India’s governors have been allowing over the years. Talk to road experts and they, too, say such incidents are inevitable — the roads are just not equipped to take so much traffic. There are too many people on the same spot at the same time. There is always a rush, always a hurry which, when impeded, results in road rage cases.
Wikipedia tells you that the term road rage originated in 1987 from newscasters at a local television station in Los Angeles where a rash of freeway shootings occurred in four freeways. Since then, a lot of research has gone into this syndrome and some clinical men have also managed to distinctly put it under the “mental disorder” category.
Back in India, road rage cases are becoming too frequent to be ignored. Take the case of a friend’s friend. He is a moneyed man living in the upmarket GK locality of South Delhi. From all accounts, he is a perfect gentleman living life cautiously. But one fine day, he gets into a scuffle with an equally fine gentleman of the same colony and the two beat each other up to pulp! Over what? Parking space. In a NOIDA sector not very long back, a man shot a neighbour over wrong parking! All these four people had no criminal backgrounds and stunned not just their near and dear ones by their violent behaviour but also themselves. This friend’s friend is not able to fathom even two years after the incident, and after being hospitalised due to injuries emanating from the scuffle, how he could have been involved in such a violent fight, that too with a neighbour! Life has altered for him since then — he has become withdrawn and is still to get over the incident.
So what can be done to curb this trend in which both the perpetrator and the victim are victims of this flash of inexplicable and uncontrollable anger. For one, we need to decongest our roads — drastically. How? We need to limit the number of vehicles each family owns. In a democracy, that may be seen to infringe on the rights of the populace. But hard measures need to be taken. Another necessity is to be genuinely zero-tolerant to any show of aggression. Cops need to inflict on-the-spot heavy duty fines on those involved in even a whiff of such behaviour. When the public knows the cops mean business, they automatically behave — as you would have seen during the Commonwealth Games. Not many dared to get into the CWG lanes as they knew they would have to pay ` 2,000 fine and risk arrest or confiscation of vehicles. Similarly, if they know violence will beget a stiff penalty, they would be force to keep their tempers in check.
Other than that, self-help is the best help. As an individual, remember what anger did to the Jet Airlines pilot. His career may be gone, he has been to jail and he would be fighting a long crippling case in court, besides of course fighting the guilt that will override him because of his action.
Just for an example, Australia has the stiffest penalties for road rage — a jail term of five years and a fine of Aus$ 100,000. Penalties get stiffer as per the level of violence shown. One hears, the Khan Market perpetrator is already out on bail!
Source: Sunday Pioneer, January 16, 2011
Actually road rage cases continue to confound me. You really don’t know who to blame it on — the city and its inherent aggression, the ever-increasing traffic stress, the job woes, the cops who look the other way, the worsening emotional volatility of the Capital’s population as a whole or all these factors put together. Whatever it is, the aggression on roads has become a huge problem and needs to be tackled with the same intensity as the police force would pursue a murder or a rape case — if that is, it is in the mood to work and no big guns are involved requiring a cover-up.
We all know that the population — of vehicles — has seen an explosion on our roads. Even the ever-expanding infrastructure is unable to deal with the quantum of traffic that it has to ferry daily. Once the metro came, everyone thought the roads will get some reprieve. But Delhi’s woes only expanded much like its transport. Now, not just the metro is spilling over but also the roads and its buses, cars, two-wheelers, and the most recently added menaces — metro ferry services.
Really, think about it. Could that pilot have imagined that morning that he would be involved as a suspect in running over another man in a fit of rage? Not his profile at all, but there is something in Delhi’s situation which has regularly been triggering such behaviour among the least suspect people. Mostly road rage cases are unexplainable. You are unable to fathom yourself what drove you to it. Talk to a shrink or a social psychologist and he will say it is the fallout of stress leading to rage and temporary mental instability. Talk to town planners and they say it is inevitable because of the crass and totally unplanned urbanisation that India’s governors have been allowing over the years. Talk to road experts and they, too, say such incidents are inevitable — the roads are just not equipped to take so much traffic. There are too many people on the same spot at the same time. There is always a rush, always a hurry which, when impeded, results in road rage cases.
Wikipedia tells you that the term road rage originated in 1987 from newscasters at a local television station in Los Angeles where a rash of freeway shootings occurred in four freeways. Since then, a lot of research has gone into this syndrome and some clinical men have also managed to distinctly put it under the “mental disorder” category.
Back in India, road rage cases are becoming too frequent to be ignored. Take the case of a friend’s friend. He is a moneyed man living in the upmarket GK locality of South Delhi. From all accounts, he is a perfect gentleman living life cautiously. But one fine day, he gets into a scuffle with an equally fine gentleman of the same colony and the two beat each other up to pulp! Over what? Parking space. In a NOIDA sector not very long back, a man shot a neighbour over wrong parking! All these four people had no criminal backgrounds and stunned not just their near and dear ones by their violent behaviour but also themselves. This friend’s friend is not able to fathom even two years after the incident, and after being hospitalised due to injuries emanating from the scuffle, how he could have been involved in such a violent fight, that too with a neighbour! Life has altered for him since then — he has become withdrawn and is still to get over the incident.
So what can be done to curb this trend in which both the perpetrator and the victim are victims of this flash of inexplicable and uncontrollable anger. For one, we need to decongest our roads — drastically. How? We need to limit the number of vehicles each family owns. In a democracy, that may be seen to infringe on the rights of the populace. But hard measures need to be taken. Another necessity is to be genuinely zero-tolerant to any show of aggression. Cops need to inflict on-the-spot heavy duty fines on those involved in even a whiff of such behaviour. When the public knows the cops mean business, they automatically behave — as you would have seen during the Commonwealth Games. Not many dared to get into the CWG lanes as they knew they would have to pay ` 2,000 fine and risk arrest or confiscation of vehicles. Similarly, if they know violence will beget a stiff penalty, they would be force to keep their tempers in check.
Other than that, self-help is the best help. As an individual, remember what anger did to the Jet Airlines pilot. His career may be gone, he has been to jail and he would be fighting a long crippling case in court, besides of course fighting the guilt that will override him because of his action.
Just for an example, Australia has the stiffest penalties for road rage — a jail term of five years and a fine of Aus$ 100,000. Penalties get stiffer as per the level of violence shown. One hears, the Khan Market perpetrator is already out on bail!
Source: Sunday Pioneer, January 16, 2011
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