Crazy, isn’t it, but put a metal box around everyone and a wheel at each corner and this almost comedic scenario becomes an everyday occurrence.
Road rage makes no sense yet we have all experienced it at some stage and it can be quite scary, if not plain dangerous. Recently I committed the cardinal sin of stalling at a junction meaning that I missed the gap in traffic, delaying not only me but those poor people behind me. I defy anyone who has ever driven a manual car to say they have never stalled but the reaction of the driver behind made me think that maybe I’d simultaneously defamed his grandmother and stolen his cat. The rage in his face, the digital expletives and the blare of the horn were not only massively disproportionate to my sin, and the momentary delay I caused, but made me hope for his sake there was a defibrillator nearby. I’m no shrinking violet, but for everyone’s benefit, I decided not to get out and discuss the issue. Once we moved, he tailgated me for at least half a mile, to what end I had no idea.
This was a minor incident in the scale of things but these flashes of anger can and have ended up in deaths. The infamous Kenneth Noye murdered Stephen Cameron during a road rage attack in 1996 and, more recently, Arslan Farooq admitted the 2022 manslaughter of Simon West following an altercation near Birmingham.
The AA boil the causes of road rage down to two elements; a bad decision or mistake followed by a bad response. I’d go further than just saying “bad” response in categorising the response as dangerous. It’s very rare for someone to deliberately almost hit another car, stall or change lanes without properly checking, but some drivers’ vicious reactions to these errors verge on the criminal.
In a recent survey, nearly 80 per cent of drivers said they expressed significant anger, aggression or road rage behind the wheel at least once in the last 30 days. Those who took part in the study admitted to aggressive lane switching or tailgating, making rude gestures, speeding, running a red light and various forms of closing down or denying space to other road users.
There’s no age group immune to road rage but the survey suggests, 29 to 43-year-olds are most prone to losing it behind the wheel with occurrences plunging by 50 per cent for the next age group, 44 to 58-year-olds. Young and older drivers appear much more chilled.
There’s no specific offence of road rage but it can be swept up by other legislation such as the Public Order and Road Traffic Acts. According to a recent report, UK police received 2,282 road rage incident reports in 2021. By the end of 2022, this figure surged by 40 per cent, reaching 3,208 cases. We can surmise why that was but with the prevalence of dashcams and static CCTV devices the evidence of driver outrage is now far easier to harness.
We live in stressful times and sometimes it’s hard to keep perspective but shaving a few seconds off our journeys or bellowing at another’s mistake cannot be good for road safety, mental health or, in the extreme, one’s liberty. I wouldn’t recommend meditating on the road but the AA offer advice to avoid hot tempers or others’ reactions when behind the wheel. This includes, keeping a good frame of mind when driving, planning for possible delays, not over-reacting to someone else’s bad driving or obsessing about it, clearly and calmly acknowledging your faults, avoiding eye contact with an aggressive driver, and staying in the car, locking the doors and calling the police if confronted.
The roads are busier than ever and many of us are in a rush, so let’s share the space, tolerate human error and behave calmly so we all reach our destination safely and placidly.
Former Brighton and Hove police chief Graham Bartlett’s Jo Howe crime novel series continues with City on Fire which was published last month
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