Do you suffer from Road Rage?

In Cape Town Symon Scott put on Facebook his experience of driving in Beach Road and saw some cyclists approaching the driver of a stationary vehicle that was double parked and started assaulting him violently. He recording the incident on his cellphone where you can clearly see how they battered the vehicle, bent the windscreen wipers, pepper sprayed the driver, tried to steal his keys, assaulted him with a bicycle wheel and punched him and the passenger in the face repeatedly.

The driver and passenger turned out to be volunteer workers cleaning up the hydration bags and other litter after the finish of the 10km Nelson Mandela Commemorative Walk.

It seems the group of cyclist was moving swiftly and the double-parked vehicle went unnoticed by the leader of the group who was looking back and communicating to the rest of the team. Only at the last second when the leader again faced forwards, did he see the vehicle.... just in the nick of time. He had to swerve violently to avoid the vehicle and this obviously upset him. He stopped his bicycle abruptly and flew into a violent rage. What is even more disturbing is that the other cyclist pulled up in support and followed his lead.

We all have read what happened in February 2014 when Meekahefele Mosooa allegedly shot a biker, Douglas Pearce in a heated road rage incident on Malibongwe Drive, in Northriding, Johannesburg.

During the bail application it was heard that both men were carrying firearms on the day of the shooting. Mosooa told the court that he acted in self-defence.
Sunday 14 September 2014, the newspapers reported about the Plumstead motorist Graeme Eadie, who was jailed for bludgeoning a man to death in an act of road rage in 1999 and this past week convicted of a second road rage-related offence committed in November last year.

Eadie pleaded guilty in the Wynberg Magistrate's Court after an incident at a busy intersection in Plumstead shortly before 8am on November 22 last year. The 67 year old Ray Scott, who was relieved the case was finally over, recalled the incident. "It all happened so quickly," he said. According to him, an enraged Eadie cut in front of him before stopping his car and getting out. Within seconds he stuck his arm through the open window of Scott's car and punched him in the face a few times.

"There was no argument," Scott said. The impact was so severe that some of his teeth were knocked out. It was only later when he inserted the memory card of his dashcam into his computer that he realised that the entire incident had been captured.

Many incidents like these are daily occurrences on our roads all over South Africa and the world. We seem to have gotten used to the violence and that rude and sometimes aggressive driving have become the norm or culture.

Do you allow yourself to get emotionally aroused on the road with no reasonable thought process and out of proportion reaction? It is better to learn how to control your emotions in the car so that you don't one day do something you regret. The consequences are often severe and can change your life for ever.