"Road rage is one of those unquantifiable effects of the traffic gridlock in the Metro area."
"Road rage is one of those unquantifiable effects of the traffic gridlock in the Metro area."
Road rage usually brings out the worst of people. The ugly confrontation a few days ago between two drivers which was recorded on video and went viral on social media is one such example. It is good that not one of them brought a gun, otherwise, someone would have died due to the intensity of their argument. It took quite a while for the two to simmer down and all because one of the two believed that the other did not give way.
People who watched the upload must have been wondering why one of the drivers, who is a medical doctor, went after the other driver who was in a collarless T-shirt as if there is no tomorrow. After some reflection, I really wonder whether he is proud of what he did. After all, as a doctor, he should have known better, but such is the nature of the road. We are seeing this happen more often in our streets nowadays.
Road rage is characterized as “aggressive or angry behavior exhibited by a driver of a road vehicle. This behavior includes rude and offensive gestures, verbal insults, physical threats or dangerous driving methods targeted towards another driver or a pedestrian in an effort to intimidate or release frustration.”
Road rage, therefore, does not always have to end up in a verbal confrontation between two drivers. It can also be shown by the way one is driving. In studies conducted in the United States, so called “road ragers” are predominantly young with an average age of about 33 years old and 96.6 percent of them are male. About 6.8 percent of road rage incidents also end up in death.
In relation to the length of time that people have been driving motor vehicles, the road rage phenomenon is relatively new. It originated in the US, particularly in the Los Angeles area, by a local TV or radio station. Since then the term has entered traffic lexicon the world over. The US National Highway Safety Administration defines road rage as “the operation of a motor vehicle in a manner that endangers or is likely to endanger persons or property.”
In the Philippines, although we have been talking about road rage for some years now, drivers who exhibit road rage behavior, if apprehended, are charge with other traffic violations such as reckless driving. This is because as far as I know, there is still no law that considers road rage as a criminal offense as distinct to aggressive driving which is ordinarily considered a traffic violation.
In the US, there is a distinction between aggressive driving and road rage. Road rage is considered a criminal offense while aggressive driving is considered a traffic offense. Other countries like Australia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom have also enacted laws on road rage which is something that our country has not yet done. Singapore and Australia impose stiff penalties if a road rage incident ends in serious physical injuries, ranging from huge fines or jail time.
In that recent road rage incident involving the doctor, it would be interesting to see what sort of traffic violations will be imposed on him. As to the question whether road rage is a mental disorder, it appears that it is not considered an official mental disorder recognized by the United States Diagnostic and Statistical Manuel of Mental Disorders. However, “according to an article published in the associated press in 2006, the behavior typically associated with road rage can be the result of a mental disorder known as intermittent explosive disorder that is recognized by the DSM.” People who personally drive their own vehicles in the metro area all know how stressful it is. If one is not patient, people can easily have a coronary attack. To the majority of the drivers, that kind of situation where that doctor was involved could just have been shrugged off but there are always a small group of drivers who could not simply let go of a situation like that.
Now, that doctor will have some answering to do with the traffic authorities. Some netizens are even calling for the Professional Regulatory Commission to sanction him, which is totally unnecessary. The toll that stress exacts on people who drive every day is not something that people can simply ignore. And this also includes pedestrians and the riding public. It is one of those unquantifiable effects of the traffic gridlock in the Metro area.
JICA, the Japanese agency, calculates that P3.5 billion is being wasted every day due to traffic but I doubt whether that includes the effects of stress on the motoring public. The health and economic loss is actually a lot more.
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It seems that it is becoming harder for anyone to be appointed as the chief of the Philippine National Police to replace retired Oscar Albayalde. This is because the President just added another condition. In addition to being honest, he wants any aspirant to guarantee that he could get rid of all the drugs lords still out there.
It is difficult to see how anyone, regardless of ambition, would be willing to give that guarantee much less be able to accomplish it. As the President himself has intimated before, it might be difficult to completely eradicate the illegal drug problem by 2022 when he steps down from office.
Perhaps the President should consider lowering his conditions for appointment and just appoint someone that he knows and comfortable with, then closely supervise him so that the organization can march to the tune he wants. There are, after all , still many outstanding officers within the PNP officer corps who are capable and dedicated.
