Though the number of road rage cases in India may not be very high compared with the United States, Britain, South Africa, Greece or Brazil, there are still many instances of motorists having either been physically assaulted or threatened with weapons by drivers.

The latest global survey on road rage and behaviour of drivers conducted during the past 12 months by global market intelligence company Synovate reveals that 14 per cent of the drivers in this country were physically assaulted or were at the receiving end of a weapon wielded by other drivers. As many as 18 per cent of the respondents said they had to face threatening behaviour where drivers or co-passengers got out of the vehicle. Motorists here faced peculiar behaviour on the road that included persistent sounding of horns and flashing of lights.

The behaviour of drivers that troubled people most included persistent sounding of horns (29 per cent), continuous flashing of headlights (27 per cent), aggressive or threatening driving behaviour (25 per cent), and rude gestures or verbal insults (23 per cent).

According to Alok Shanker, Managing Director of Synovate India, altercations with other drivers can get physical, but it stops with the arrival of police or onlookers. "Drivers are rarely assaulted unless pedestrians or the general public is injured in an accident. Then the public take the law into their own hands and the driver is taught a lesson on the spot," he saidCases of road rage are becoming more common in metros. The term "road rage" has loosely been defined as all anti-social behaviour on the road, although Dr. Barry J. Elliott, an Australian research and communication psychologist, argues in a 1999 paper that it should only be confined to "intentional acts of violence and assault, and that the issue is a criminal matter, not a road safety concern".

During the survey, over 4,000 driving respondents in 10 countries -- India, Greece, France, United States, Brazil, Malaysia, Korea, Taiwan, South Africa and Britain -- were asked whether they have experienced various acts on the road. Respondents were also asked about their own aggressive driving behaviour. Interestingly, South African drivers led all the markets in being constantly blinded by flashing headlights (64 per cent) and in experiencing aggressive and/or threatening driving behaviour (67 per cent).

Similarly, eight of 10 drivers in Britain received rude gestures or verbal insults, the highest among all markets surveyed, while 67 per cent of Greeks were barraged by persistent blaring of horns. Respondents from Greece, South Africa and Britain experienced and expressed the highest levels of anti-social driving behaviour. South Africans were aggressive on the roads because of high speed driving with poor law enforcement despite increased traffic congestion, the survey said.

By: Sandeep Joshi
Date: Wednesday, Aug 03, 2005
Source: http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/03/stories/2005080311750400.htm

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