You give me Road Rage! (Road Rage)

Member Name: Coxy1974

Product:	Road Rage
Date:	21/02/07 (169 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None really apart from you may let off a little steam at the time

Disadvantages: more stress, potentially very dangerous

Roadrage

After reading the many reviews on here about this subject I decided to add my two-penneth for what it is worth!

I have been the victim of road rage myself on many occasions. There are lots of factors to take into consideration when looking at this subject I feel. Many people, like myself, view a car as a necessary possession. This is essentially true, however, you can look at it from a different angle and say that it is a potentially lethal weapon.

We’ve all gotten into a car and driven ourselves, loved ones and friends to many destinations when maybe we shouldn’t do. Stress, tiredness, having drunk alcohol maybe, having just had an argument with someone – these are things to consider really before driving somewhere. Sometimes I have driven to work and not remembered the actual journey there – not because I was under the influence, merely because I was on auto-pilot and the journey was uneventful. But what would have happened if the journey had turned out to be eventful – would I have had enough wits about me to have had the right reactions swiftly enough? I’d like to think that I would have but we’ll never know.

Some people are just naturally aggressive and that actually spills over into everything they do, affecting the way they drive. My driving instructor used to get me to pull over if someone was right up my backside when I was learning to drive. He always said that it was better to have these kinds of people in front of you where you can keep them in sight (or not as the case may be!) rather than have them behind you where you constantly try to anticipate what they are going to do or worse have them run into the back of you because they’re driving too close.

I’ve also experienced road rage myself as I can’t abide bad driving. Road rage takes on many forms, it can be as simple as just calling someone a name because they do something stupid or more extreme cases of actually getting out of the car and starting a fight or worse. Most times when I have been ‘tipped over the edge’ by someone cutting me up are because I’m on my way home after a long day training the other side of the country or after a stressful day in the office.

My experiences of road rage then

I had been driving for about 4 years but had just bought myself my first car. It was a mini and bright yellow, no dashboard to speak of, no radio, not even a carpet and it leaked from every single part of the windscreen it could but I loved it. It was a great little car despite my inexperience with a manual choke and problems it had starting. We had some real fun in this car and when someone ran into the back of me my little four x (as I called him because of the colour being similar to a can of Castlemaine XXXX lager) came off better but the person who crashed into me had the whole front of his bonnet crumpled.

Anyway I digress (fond memories of the car) back to the roadrage incident. I was sat in a line of traffic that was not moving at a roundabout. The guy in the big 4x4 that pulled up behind me obviously got really impatient because he started beeping his horn and waving his hand telling me to move out of his way. I ignored him to begin with – I mean where was he going to go? The road was narrow so it wasn’t like I was blocking a filter lane or anything and besides there was nowhere for me to go. After several minutes of his tooting his horn and shouting for me to move, he actually got out of his car and came over to me. He was very offensive and said if I didn’t move he’d run over my little matchbox toy car because I was holding him up. By now the traffic had started to move a little so he was actually holding himself up. I smiled sweetly and put the car in gear and moved off. I wasn’t going to enter into an argument with him – he was at least 2 foot taller than me!

Another time I had taken my sisters children to see Star Wars – Attack of the Clones. We’d had a really good night out as I’d booked advance tickets, taken them to Pizza Hut and generally had fun. I’d progressed to a nicer car by then as this was about 5 years ago. She was called Sally and was a bright red Saxo, being the first car I had managed to save and buy outright and being brand new I was very proud of my shiny little Sally. On approach to a large Island that is controlled by traffic lights I got in lane. This happened to be the left lane which left turners can use and also can be used by people going straight on. The traffic lights had just turned to green as I got to the Island so after double checking nothing was on the Island I ventured out. I saw a flash out of the corner of my eye and stamped on the brake coming to a screeching halt on the Island just before the left turn. Then it happened – Bang and my wheel trim shot off round the Island. A jeep had jumped the red light after I had gone onto the Island. If I hadn’t seen him and applied the brakes the jeep would have ploughed into the drivers door and I may not be here today to tell this tale.

The thing is he didn’t stop. Drove off down the road at break neck speed. What I am about to tell you is the most stupidest thing I have ever done. I followed him getting one of the kids to write down the registration number in the process. Eventually he did stop on a narrow country lane where it was dark. He was out of his jeep before I could even stop and when I did, pulled open the drivers door and virtually pulled me out of the car. He pinned me against the side of the car and verbally abused me. He stank of alcohol and it was only 7pm on a Saturday evening not to mention the fact that he had a young child in the car with him.

I managed to disentangle myself and one of the kids passed me my phone out of the car. I managed to dial 999 but they couldn’t send anyone out to me. They asked me to put they guy on the phone and after speaking to them he seemed to calm down a little but when I got the phone again he turned to me and said ‘I am gonna F******g do you!’ At this point the police office told me to get back in my car, give her the registration number of the other car and stay on the line whilst I drove home. He followed me all the way to a local police station so it was obvious that he was planning on following me home. I spoke to police in the station about the obvious smell of alcohol and they said they’d send someone round. What actually did happen was a police officer visited me as the guy had reported me for drink and dangerous driving when he’d gotten home along with driving away from the scene of an accident.

I will say that I have never been so scared in my entire life and I ended up selling the car in the end because I was so scared that he would track me down.

I’ve also seen all the cars haring up the road behind you, flashing lights, honking horns and the like. I move over and let them pass because it really isn’t worth allowing them to upset my day. I used to slow down and drive at a slower speed just to annoy them but I don’t anymore.

As I drive a lot with my job it is inevitable that I experience a certain amount of frustration with traffic or others that I meet out on the road. I freely admit to having been one of the drivers I have mentioned who has flashed another to get out of their way or honked the horn.

I have even been known to wind down the window and shout names out at other people because of their bad driving. Why I did this I have no idea. It seemed as though a red mist had descended and horns came out on top of my head.

A few years back I did a stress analysis on my life. I had to keep a stress diary for a test work were doing at the time about stress in the workplace. I found that the times I was most stressed were driving home from work or on a Saturday driving around the city centre. It was for this reason alone that I decided I was probably a liability to myself and others on the road in this state and I needed to work something out for my stress issue. I actually spoke to a stress councillor through work and she suggested I take up some form of Yoga. I have been doing it ever since 3 times a week. Dealing with stressful situations now are a breeze and I no longer feel the need to poke every bad driver in the eye!

So in essence – what I have taken so long to talk about is that for every case of road rage there are always other factors to consider. Dealing with the underlying issue and getting to the root cause, recognising that maybe you do have a bit of an issue is the first step, can help in so many ways. If I hadn’t ever done the stress diary I would never have known that I was putting myself in a stressful situation that my body coped with by becoming aggressive, every time I got behind the wheel of a car.

I have calmed down a considerable amount. I’m not saying that I don’t allow other people to piss me off but if I do something stupid on the road and someone toots me for it I will say I’m sorry. If someone does something stupid to me on the road then I simply let it go – I may have a chunter to myself about it but it’s not worth it after my experiences.

Just some of my experiences behind the wheel - thanks for reading!

Summary: Let's get rid of it before it becomes out of hand