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-   -   Road Rage - Understanding, Avoidance and De-escalating Situation (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/road-safety/133373-road-rage-understanding-avoidance-de-escalating-situation-7.html)

Sorry to hear about the unfortunate incident. This is a problem not only in Bangalore but in every metro. If they feel you are an outsider then god help you. This is where i have always stressed on having a dash cam. With this you could have the whole scenario recorded and a solid proof to go to the police and report the incident.I never get out of my car. In case of any issues I just drive fast to the nearest police station and surrender.
I always carry a cricket bat and a can of pepper spray which i would use at the last resort but only as a deterrent.

A dash cam and pepper spray is on the cards after this incident.
Regarding a cricket/baseball bat, when it is the mob against you i doubt how much will that help.It may infact show you in even more bad light.
But in one-off cases it will definitely help.Though, I would be the last one to pick one up.

I have started to keep the wheel spanner in the under seat storage after this incident

I had a strange experience yesterday. I was crossing a busy intersection in one of the bylanes close to ghatkopar station. I was with my colleague and approached the intersection when the signals were green but could not clear the junction since the traffic was choked.

Meanwhile a sardarji in a santro in the next road perpendicular to me was getting aggressively close to left door of my XUV so i just gave him a look so he started saying something which I couldn't hear. Meanwhile I just pointed at the signal and told him its my right of way and the next moment I know is he hits my car. I was furious and I just got out of my car.

This man, comes out of his santro and tells me that I have jumped the signal. I was patiently reasoning out with me that I was not in a hurry and would have surely stopped if the signal was red but that was not the case and i had entered the junction when signal was green. Irrespective of that he had no business to bang my car. I had a look at both the cars. There was no damage on my XUV since he almost hit the left rear wheels but his santro bumpers were damaged. He was in a very aggressive mood and told me that if need be he will bang my car once again.

I asked him what is that he achieved by doing it. He not only could early but also ended up damaging his vehicle. He sheepishly responds saying it gives him a lot of satisfaction. I was lost for words and smiled at him and pushed off. Meanwhile I was just wondering how do you manage to handle fanatics like this. He is just waiting to pick up a fight. His own vehicle getting damaged is not a deterrent for him. Ends up making baseless arguments.

I thought leaving such characters all alone and pushing off makes sense instead of reasoning out with them. But then again I feel not taking action against such creeps would only encourage them.

Malayalam movie :‬ Kali,u just cant get a better explanation of the following:

1)Perils of road rage
2)Dangers of night driving on Indian highways
3)Over dependence on plastic on Indian highways
4)Getting into unnecessary altercations with strangers on highways

All these have been hammered to death in every possible driving forum,but we finally have a feature representation to it-Amazing movie-period

Outsider to them insider to the nation. Talking about Nationalism, how screwed up we are really? Goons are everywhere. Calls for compulsory civic education at all schools.

Reminded me of the incidence when I was beaten by the moronic ticket collector of a bus which came wrong side of the busy ITPL road of Bangalore asking me to make way for his bus which is heading nowhere. I was on the right lane. Then little did I know my MH registration will cause so much hatred.

:thumbs up Good job I would say since you avoided getting into a ugly confrontation with someone who is already frustrated and also de-escalated the situation by confounding him with a reasonable question !

People nowadays consider someone simply giving them a look (forget giving a stare) as a challenge for a fight and our traffic madness is enough to make one forget all rhyme and reason.

Don't know where to put this - I have no words for these cruel evil people.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/2016/04...n_9769720.html

In a shocking case of road rage, a 40-year-old man died of a heat stroke when he was made to do sit-ups on the road in scorching heat because he accidentally bumped into someone's car.

According to Mumbai Mirror, the victim's body was found in his car in Secunderabad.

The police initially considered that the man may have died of a sun stroke inside the hot car. But the investigators decided to figure out why he sat in the car despite the unbearable heat.

CCTV footage from the area then showed that the yet unidentified man was made to do sit-ups by four men who decided to 'punish' him for scratching their car.

The footage also showed that the four men snatched the wallet from the already weak victim and left him there.

The Mirror reports: "Three of the accused have been taken into custody, while the fourth is at large. At the time of going to press, the identity of the victim was yet to be ascertained."

And road rage are becoming increasingly common

http://overdrive.in/opinions/muscle-power/

I was a victim of road rage recently. Although I brushed it off as a trivial and unimportant incident, more like a mosquito bite and went on with my business at that point, I realized the magnitude of damage It could have caused to a less experienced driver. Hence, I decided to take some time off and write about it.

Before I get on with it, a little about myself first. I have about 500,000 km driving experience under my belt. 220,000 km on my current ride and the rest on various other cars and motorcycles.I am a sedate driver and always try to follow traffic rules. I'm extremely calm and it is very difficult to get me angry, especially when Im behind the wheel. :)

I purchased a vespa for my wife last week and decided to use it for a little bit.
I was riding on ring road near kalyannagar, Bangalore when this happened. I was on the extreme left doing about 40 Kmph( speed limit is 50kmph). A guy in an old Maruti 800 started honking continuously and when he overtook me, he suddenly cut into my lane trying to shock me or something. Further ahead, when he slowed down, I got a chance to ask him to drive safely. In response, the fellow hurled insults at me and sped away.

What happened next is a bit tricky to explain but I'll try my best. The guy slowed down, waited for me to overtake him and tried to hit me from behind several times.Then he came next to me and tried to crash into me from the side.He overtook me, came into my lane and suddenly braked several times.
When he slowed down, I went up to him and said " I'll report you to the police". This got him all worked up and he picked up his phone and called someone (i'm guessing some police officer he may know) and said " Red Vespa number XXXX , Mujhe hit and run karke Bhaag gaya sir" (A red vespa guy hit my car and escaped). I said carry on you're doing the right thing and moved on. I believe I saw him taking pictures of my number plate.I'm Seriously hoping some one contacts me regarding the same.

So here is the thing:
Driving is like meditation. you have to focus and pay absolute attention.It teaches you quite a bit about human nature if you just pay attention.Never loose your calm weather it is behind the wheel or in life. I cant stress enough on this " Always respect fellow road users".
How a person behaves on road is actually a reflection of the kind of person he/she is off it IMHO.

The other important point I'd like to make is that, when a person does something like this, it is easy to stereotype the whole community. What I mean to say is that, because of one bad apple like this one, people will classify everyone into the same group. That is not good for our country. Imagine if more people displayed road rage like this and hurled abuses in Hindi, then Bangalore will soon develop an anti-North Indian sentiment( God forbid). Just imagine, if a person displaying road rage or driving badly and has a Team bhp Sticker on his bumper.

As far as I'm aware, Bangalore is pretty welcoming and tolerant. Even on the road most people actually follow rules and respect fellow motorists. I've heard it is a personal favorite to many Indians across different fields. I wish every city becomes as welcoming (most already are).

That said, I'd like to conclude saying that wherever a person is from, whichever country, city or state, he is representing his/her people and IMHO should leave it better than he found it and try to promote love not hatred. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Cheers!

** I was as calm as a millpond through out the incident:)

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Good that you have maintained your composure. I guess he must have got frightened when you said police and must have dallied some random (customer care :D ) number and acted like he called the police before you so that you wouldn't. I can't understand how people are so twisted (jealous of your Vespa maybe lol:) to do such stuff on some one going by their business. How do they find the time for such stuff, i don't understand.

The issue I feel is, many of us take out our frustrations on the road.

Work, home , personal frustrations usually comes out on the road in the form of rage when you are in control of a vehicle.

Very true that you mentioned, 'How a person behaves on road is actually a reflection of the kind of person he/she is off it IMHO.'

Add to that , I am quoting a line I heard when I started my career, ' don't carry your work tensions home and vice versa'.
Works the same for the road as well now.

Kudos to you for staying calm. No point in getting in to a fight with someone for whom ego is above everything else.

You shouldn't have bothered to advice the guy to drive safely. Such morons aren't in any mood to listen and it further enrages them.

Keep calm, move on and let Karma do it's job, is the only mantra that works well :)

An unsolicited advice from a not so experienced driver as you.

After having so much driving experience under your belt, what for heaven's sake made you think you can give some good advice to a moron on the road and he will listen to you like an obedient student ?

I am sure you know how people take it to their ego when some one for no reason and no way related gives advice (even good ones). You are lucky that the guy was only trying to scare you and not actually intending to hurt you. It could have been worse otherwise.

My Advice: STAY AWAY from such people, preserve your advise for those who care. If someone is deliberately paving their way right up to hell risking their own life, leave them alone.

Cheers

Thank God, your safe. Based on numerous such incidents, I have stopped gesturing ( good or bad), reduced honking and even avoid eye contact in close counters. You never know what gets the other person worked up. It seems everyone treats the roads as a war zone. Drive safe.

@ Pradshiv
I believe the guy got scared when you said you will report to the police and just pretended calling some cop he knew. It is hilarious to hear some one say dimunitive Vespa hit a car and ran away! I can't imagine what case a traffic police can file even if a Vespa did hit a car in traffic.