Road rage – pent up aggression

Crimes committed as a result of road rage are becoming increasingly violent as one female motorist and her 10-year-old son discovered when they came face to face with their aggressors on November 11 at about 17:34 while travelling along Van Wyk Louw Street in Steeledale.

The driver of a light blue Chev Optra was travelling towards Elandspark and noticed that the robot had changed to amber and there were still cars in front of her. Unintentionally, she stopped the vehicle over the yellow marking. This yellow marking allows road users to stop before the intersection to allow other vehicles space to turn.

She noticed a silver grey VW Polo with two Indian males inside and the driver’s intention was to turn into the lane where she had stopped. There were cars in front of her, at the back and on her left hand side. The driver of the VW Polo hooted and said something to her but she did not hear his exact words and she just carried on looking ahead of her without responding.

She could tell by the sound of their voices that they were becoming agitated, however, there was nothing that she could do because there were other cars in front of her.

At some point she turned to look at them and at this stage it was visibly obvious that the occupants of the grey VW Polo had become frustrated and were ready to burst into a rage. The driver steered his vehicle and squeezed it in front of the other motorist’s car until it touched the front right hand side of her bumper.

Instead of taking a deep breath and letting things go, the other Indian male who was sitting in the front passenger seat flung his side of the car door open and stormed out heading towards the lady. He then stood on the right hand side of her car bumper and told her that she had just bumped his car. As she tried to explain, he raised his leg and ruthlessly kicked the right fender of her car which resulted in extensive damages.

In disbelief she remained calm inside the car and did not retaliate in anger because she didn’t want to exacerbate his behaviour and cause this scenario to result in devastating consequences. In a civil manner she told him that she was going to take the car registration number and report them to the police. The Indian male responded by saying: “I don’t f****ing care, go to the police” and thereafter they drove away from the scene.

As she sat in her car reeling from shock another motorist in a white car squeezed passed her from the left hand side and scratched her left hand side bumper. This other motorist is residing down the road from her street and he didn’t even have the courtesy to stop.

Bad driving practices on our South African roads need to be seriously addressed. People should practice controlling their pent up aggression, deal with their stress or depression and not take it out on innocent road users.

Angel Pomuser