Road rage

[Alex]

Yesterday i got caught up in a road rage incident and it shook me all day, even though I tried not to let it show. My dad was reversing into a narrow gap to try and park in a disabled space, but a car had come up behind and didn't give him room.

They shouted and swore at him and he ignored them, and then it got louder and they stuck their heads out and they were skinheads. My dad was about to get out, but I stopped him and I went out and then the man threatened me. There were lots of witnesses, as I told him the care was being reversed slowly, and the aggressive man then swore and shouted at the people nearby (who were just in the shops).

I know road rage can be dangerous, and it may have been foolhardy to confront the man, but it was getting out of control with the expletives and abuse. At times should you just walk away, or confront it? If I hadn't I would have been angry at myself, and even though I had, I was riled as I knew he could have punched me, but knew with so many people around and the fact he couldn't drive off, he wouldn't have gotten away with it. It ruined the rest of my day.

 

[tomorrow]

You are very true. I am sure almost everybody might have gone through such a situation somewhere in his driving life. There are different types of people, some of them are kind enough to understand the other person's situation. The problem arises when both parties start to think that the other person is guilty. It happens in almost all accidents.

I am a peace loving person so if there is no major harm I will let it go. Even though peace-loving I am a little short tempered too. In your situation I may lose temper and might have handled it very bad. You handled it in a matured way I think.

 

[janemariesayed]

My brother suffers from road rage. What I mean is that he suffers from dishing it out to other road users. Because of this, he doesn't use the roads, he uses a train or a bus instead. He has depression and has an anger management problem. He knows he can get angry at other drivers and he also realises, thankfully that they don't deserve being sworn at. As he finds it difficult to control himself, he prefers to use public transport so he doesn't come across things that make him angry and set him off. Bad drivers are a trigger for him so he does his best to avoid it. Not all drivers are bad drivers, but he can still get angry if he considers what they have done is wrong, even if they were driving responsibly. That is not what they are doing in his head.

I would say that the best thing to do is to walk away. These people are no different from my brother, other than they have not addressed their anger issue. We should try to understand that they have issues, they are angry because of hurt they feel inside. That hurt comes out as anger. If we respond to them, it will just feed their trigger and make it worse. The only way we can help them is to keep the windows closed, stay in the car and do our best to drive away as quickly as possible.

Don't let things like this ruin your day. Send them good energy and perhaps say a little prayer for them, if you are into that kind of thing. But whatever you do, don't let them spoil your whole day. Forgiveness isn't agreeing with someone's words or deeds. It's not keeping those deeds in your mind. Letting go, just forgetting it and not letting it bother you. Believe me, the incident will stay in their mind too, and probably for more than a day.

 

[Alex]

Being able to talk about it helped, and also knowing that the person was boxed in (a car in front and behind) so there was no way for them to escape if they were violent. I imagine they already had a record too as the man wasn't driving, but a woman was, and both seemed to have anger issues. Even though it was midday, I wouldn't rule out alcohol as being a cause too.

I know there are bad incidents where people have been shot and chased, but you can never tell when someone is a little crazy behind a wheel. My brother has road rage and it's hard watching him at times. He doesn't have a car at present which is probably a good thing.