Road Rage – The Menace Continues

Accidents do happen in foreign countries also. In fact, some accidents can be really fatal or causing extensive damage to the vehicle as the speed on their roads is very high. However, what’s amiss there is road rage. When two vehicles collide, drivers just alight, shake hands and leave the rest to police and insurance companies. While we all talk about lane driving, well-maintained vehicles, no honking, observance of discipline (following signals, tying seat belts) etc, we seldom talk about complete absence of road rage there.

Unfortunately, while good things take time and effort to spread, vices spread at epidemic pace. What was earlier restricted to North and Delhi has quickly spread to other parts of the country and Mumbai that has always been known for its disciplined traffic, in spite of serious constraints of traffic volumes and width and quality of roads, has merrily adopted this evil. Even if a vehicle lightly scrapes another with absolutely no or minimal damage, the two colliding vehicle owners will be out on the road, abusing each other and catching each other’s throats. Grievous injuries and murders are also being frequently observed.

I have written on the menace of road rage earlier too. The immediate provocation for this blog is a news item as per which two politicians were are at each other’s throats post a minor collision in the satellite suburb of Ulhasnagar. If the law makers and keepers are to demonstrate such behaviour in public, what can be expected from common public. To give vent to the frustration built up by long travel time, fatigue, bumper to bumper traffic and/or late for an appointment, by taking it out on a fellow driver is abhorrent to say the least. Let there be more CCTV cameras capturing the accidents to pin down the errant driver, quick response action by police and quick action by insurance companies to kill this new social malaise or already dangerous Indian roads will become even more risky to driving.