Either road rage seems to be a serious issue that’s on a rise lately, or we’re just hearing more of the incidents that happen everyday thanks to the prevalence of easy to use recording devices and social media. Who can forget the Kiki incident earlier this year?
Another incident went viral on social media yesterday. A lady honked at a Honda CR-V who was claimed to be weaving between lanes. The CR-V driver stopped his car, and knocked on her window, spat on her wind screen, and damaged her wiper and wing mirror. The set of photos on Facebook shows the wiper arm bent at a 90 degree angle.
This situation is actually quite different from the Kiki case because there was no actual accident that took place. Apparently all happened over a honk. Of course, we only have one side of the story here and we don’t know what the victim actually did to provoke such a response from the CR-V driver, but given that there’s no visible damage to the CR-V I don’t think it warrants physically damaging her car.
What should you do if you ever get into such a situation? I am going to go with the recommendation of prevention being the best solution. Don’t use your horn and high beam in an angry manner to reprimand other motorists. Just a normal honk will do, for situational awareness purposes.
If a person cuts in front of you dangerously, it might be tempted to just blare your horn continuously for half a minute, or flash your high beam at him continuously to vent your frustration, but in reality what does it accomplish?
Honestly, you have no idea what is the mental health and condition of the person in the car next to you. Sanity is not a criteria of getting a driving license, nor is it a pre-requisite to buy a car. If the person is driving like an ass, he’s likely an ass. Don’t provoke the person into making you a road bully target.
You might be really angry at what the other driver did, and it also puts you at risk of becoming a road bully yourself, so take some deep breaths to calm yourself. You cannot undo what happened. You need to realise that no matter what you do, you cannot control another driver’s behaviour.
Instead, drive defensively and always keep an eye out for these erratic drivers. I’ve found that I can predict what cars are going to pull dumb moves on the road by watching how they’re keeping to their lane or how they are following the car in front of them. Slow down to give yourself some distance, switch lanes to reduce the risk of joining the party in a multi-car pile-up, do whatever it takes, just stay out of the way of these people.
You might add only a minute or two to your travel time but the peace of mind will be totally worth it. You might even see your fuel consumption drop from the coasting when you slow down to keep your distance.
Is your bruised ego worth the potential physical damage to you and your car?
Of course, things happen. If the situation somehow gets to the point where you are the target of a road bully, back off and try to put as many cars between you and the attacker as possible. Be prepared to change your journey. Getting to your destination is no longer the priority, shaking the bogey off your tail is. Switch lanes or even switch your route if necessary. Hopefully the person will just lose interest in you and continue to go about his journey.
If the road bully manages to get you to stop your car and walks over to get you to come out of your car – just stay put with your doors locked. It may help if you wind down the window a little (but not enough for the person to reach in) and offer a sincere apology. Put your ego aside for this. Apologise even if you think the other driver is wrong. Think of it as a self-defence tactic. Do not ever, ever get stuck in an argument.
If the person continues to harass you, wind the window back up and begin to call the police. Tell the bully you are doing so. Hopefully this will cause the person to back off. Be prepared to drive to the nearest police station – this is where GPS navigation software with an updated point of interest database will be useful. Take note of the bully’s number plate and make a police report to make sure everything is recorded.
Lastly, I recommend removing anything on your car that could personally identify you. In this world where we are increasingly getting paranoid about privacy on our social media profiles, we somehow turn our cars into billboards with stickers showing where we live, where we work and who we work for.
Remember – the key is just not to react to bad driving on the road. We are not traffic police. Think of your loved ones and always make the safest choices. It’s just not worth it.
“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else — you are the one who gets burned.”
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aduhai, nowadays there are one sentence.
If you still alive, there are always jokes and news around you.
Crazy people is crazy. If it was me I would just gostan a bit then drive away.
if gostan and drive away, the crazy people give chase?
U kalau terjumpa orang gila u akan kacau dia ka?
Good article, admin. Very good suggestions in dealing wif “orang gila” on the road.
Funny, some human being like to act like animals, weird….. probably failure of evolution within their families genes, still retaining the animal behaviour compared to the rest…..
in this situation if the bully is holding a stick or anything that shows in a manner to strike on the victim’s car or the victim themselves, how do we react to this? if we stay in the locked car he will still break the windows or windscreen. If we drive away and he suddenly goes in front of the car to stop the car, how?
Nowadays many road have cameras, can’t the police just catch those bullies even if no reports had been done?
The best solution would be to run him over but not kill him in the process of doing so.
i know her. the victim is my friend’s sister.
Your friend’s sister stopped her car, took out her phone to record the incident from the very beginning. Seemed like she was waiting for her 5 minutes fame.
Lol, If were me i will just bang his car or maybe try to run him over for scare purpose!
Crazy People how can doing like that? why our Police no caught them and how could be can fight the drivers
Hi, I definitely agree with what you mentioned in the articles. Backing up to keep your own safe is definitely important. But on the other hand, by backing up, all this road thug will think they are big deal & people are afraid of them & hence have bigger ego & become more notorious. It might even boost up the amount of the road thug society. It’s an egg or chicken situation.
it goes both ways. see all the comment, both also dont want to let go. drive and show your intention, if u want to go right…signal and move gradually to the right…doesn’t matter if u hogging…at least u r predictable.
I was victim to a road bully before too!
The bugger in a Black illegally tinted Subaru Impreza forcefully cut queue (due to jam) and tried to enter my lane from the left. Driving very quickly, he forced his way through by nearly colliding with me but I held my position and did not let him pass as I had queued for a long time from the beginning already. I could not suddenly move to the right to avoid him as it was jam.
He went mad, drove behind me, overtook me, and RAMMED me from the side! I was like WTF!!! and totally couldn’t comprehend what just happened. In shock, I continued driving as he did the same and then he sped off.
This happened around 2 months ago at the flyover at LDP connecting 1U to Tropicana City Mall stretch. Please be-careful of this mad man.
These people are equivalent to mad dogs….it’s always better to avoid mad dogs,lest they would bite you! But if the dogs attack you,you have to defend yourself somehow!
MOst of them are Honda drivers
Good advise, no doubt, but on the contrary, if everyone simply backed-up, it only encourage those mad-cows to go even “mad-er”. In due course, someone gonna get it from the lose-controlled madness…..
The writer should immediately report this to the police as it is criminal damage and the offender can be prosecuted. One should additionally always leave sufficient room in front of your vehicle when stationery in traffic so that you can drive off sideways if attacked – not stopped bumper to bumper. Unfortunately the Malaysian attitude to bad driving is ‘Why bother-la’ and this attitude is a major reason why Malaysian driving standards are so pitifully poor. Don’t ignore – do something!That’ll put him off doing it again.
I know probably it’s a good choice to just back off but if no one honk or in other word indirectly point out the driver’s mistakes by honking or flash beam then the same mad driving skills will just keep going and maybe one day it might caused an accident.
Lum Ji Seng Somehow, many motorists in Malaysia doesn’t fit to drive at all, instead they all should thrown behind bars since they like to drive like it’s their father’s owned road. Somehow, it’s far better for them to be thrown inside jail and get sodomised than lying into hospital or worse, going back home in a closed wooden box.
Actually Ministry of transport already proposed to put the drivers who drives dangerously to be put behind bars. And his ideas got shots by pembangkang and even from their own government fellows.
Here’s the link
http://paultan.org/2012/01/27/mandatory-jail-term-for-reckless-drivers-being-mulled/
My personal anecdotal experience is that bullies only react that way to ‘easy’ targets. My horn gets a lot of use driving in KL, and I’ve maddened plenty a bad driver. As a result I’ve invited quite a few to step out and settle it man to man but they’ve always stayed in their cars instead, resorting to cursing out the window. Maybe if more ‘able’ people were to confront bullies in general these asshats would watch their behaviour more, but it’s just not the norm for Malaysians to do that – socially we’re pretty timid as a whole.
Aggree with funny thing. But then those drivers who gets honk by you will be standing by with her or his camera in their car to catch your actions going out from your car accusing you trying to bully them. So later they can upload the video in the YouTube.
But yes, rude drivers deserve to be honked and yes if they provoke you more, no problem we can can always stop the car to listen to their stupid reasoning whay they cut queues, running over red lights, going over the traffics etc etc..
Should show the CRV no plate so that the public know & make a shame out of him, like case in Singapore last year till the crazy driver apologise online as a lot of people’s confirm his act & some even threaten him.Why must cover???
This is such a good article. I encountered a road bully this morning. I had my 4 year old daughter in the car. This guy cut into my lane and almost hit my car. When I honked at him he showed his middle finger, started tail gating me & came very close to my car fr behind. And I could see from my rear view mirror that he kept showing the middle finger. What has our society become? Such uncivilised behaviour and furthermore with a child in the car. I really pity him. Wanted to report to the police but I don’t have a video recording. Time to install a camera in my car.