Why are people empathising with road rage?

0

AMIDST the flooding in the southern parts of Sarawak over the week leading to Chap Goh Meh, Sarawakians were also somewhat entertained by a Penang lorry driver’s rage.

The word ‘entertained’ may seem rather inappropriate seeing that some cars were total wrecks after he was done with them.

For those not on social media, snippets of the video of the lorry driver ramming his way through several cars parked at a market in Nibong Tebal have been featured by major local television news programmes.

The lorry driver was apparently irked by the fact that his right of way was blocked by cars that had parked illegally.

Instead of backing up, he decided to bulldoze his way through the sea of cars.

Instead of expressing anger at his actions, many Malaysians actually applauded the lorry driver for what he did. Social media and national news dailies compiled the public feedback.

Some thought he deserved a Datukship for highlighting the frustrations that many road users have with their inconsiderate counterparts on the road. Many echoed this sentiment, to the extent of injecting a little bit of humour and asking if the lorry driver could be hired to ram through others who parked illegally.

Never mind that the lorry driver was charged in court for allegedly driving without a valid licence and under the influence of alcohol, Malaysians are still empathising with this guy.

Despite the fact that his judgement may have been impaired, Malaysians still said they understood his actions to a certain extent.

“How many times have you wished that you had a crane or huge tyres just to crush those who park inconsiderately and block your way?” said an acquaintance in response to the video of the cars being rammed.

Undoubtedly, most road users, even in the less stressful driving conditions in Sarawak, have at one point or another wished that they could just get rid of that one car that got in the way.

As a matter of fact, the Eye once experienced a similar incident some eight years back. An event was going on in town. As Kuchingites, many of us abhor walking from one destination to another, even if these are merely a few hundred metres apart.

“Mun dapat, orang kat sitok maok juak parking depan pintu sekali.” This is something we commonly hear. (If possible, our people would like to park right at the entrance of our destinations).

Anyway, back to the incident. Thanks to a procession that was taking place in the heart of Kuching city, there were cars parked illegally along both sides of the very narrow Jalan Mathies.   Now, if one were driving a little Malaysian car, one would not have a problem squeezing through the cars parked on both sides.

Anything larger and wider than a Proton Saga would require some skills in manoeuvring and inching your way through in order not to get your own vehicle scratched.

Well, there was this one ton lorry in front of the Eye’s vehicle. The driver was stuck in a situation where he could not back up as the Eye and many other vehicles were behind him.

After 10 minutes or so of blaring his horn, hoping that the car owners were nearby, he decided to just ‘gohet’ as we say here. Plus there were a whole lot of other cars behind also continuously sounding their horns.

While the cars on both sides were not damaged as extensively as the cars in the Penang incident, some did end up with minor scrapes along the sides. As for those that had static side mirrors, well, these had to be replaced.

Passengers in the Eye’s car just behind the lorry were applauding the truck driver, going, “Very good! Who asked them to simply park like that! Padan muka!”

But are we correct to applaud or support aggressive behaviour? As much as we empathise with the two drivers, we know that their actions were not correct.

Yet, we know ourselves, that if allowed to get out of hand, we ourselves could also possibly react in the same manner.

Researchers such as Mann, et al (2004), who study road rage, report that almost a third of road users engage in some form of aggressive behaviour themselves in response to provocations on the road.

Ah yes, the word ‘provocation’. This explains why people can relate to others getting mad on the road. While most people react in a rather ‘docile’ aggressive manner such as just blaring the horn, or at letting out a yell or the middle finger fly loose, a handful will actually take their frustrations to the next level by creating some sort of ruckus and resort to some form of outright attack. But yes, the number of cars continue to increase on Malaysian roads, as do the number of road rage cases.

There are two distinct breeds of road users – the ‘jalan bapa punya’ and the overly courteous, who give way to everyone else, causing jams behind them.

Then there’s the average road user like you and Eye who will occasionally get ticked off by the other two.

At the end of the day, it really boils down to how we ourselves act on the road. Do we value our vehicles enough not to park inconsiderately and risk getting them damaged?

Are we sensible enough not to get in the way of others and cause distress? Or are we just too caught up in ourselves and expect others to do right by us?

Comments can reach the writer via [email protected].