The Hindu : New Delhi News : Road rage a multi-dimensional behavioural disorder

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Road rage a multi-dimensional behavioural disorder

Kunal Diwan

NEW DELHI: The safety-quotient of the Capital’s roads took a major beating as four motorcyclists with socio-pathic tendencies allegedly beat up a car driver to death late on Monday night.

Defined broadly as “violent behaviour by an automobile driver that may lead to unsafe driving conditions”, road rage is considered by most psychiatrists to be a multi-factorial behavioural disorder.

Usually an expression of irritation that takes the form of honking, verbal abuse, rash driving and threats of physical violence, road rage occasionally devolves into frank and brutal violence.

According to P.S. Das, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Noida Medicare Centre, road rage is a manifestation of a lack of impulse control wherein the subject’s outburst is disproportionate to the aggravating stimulus. Such individuals exhibit unwarranted reactions towards even minor errors by fellow drivers and can be generally classified as “aggressive” persons.

Bouts of petulance

The Chief of the Department of Mental Health at Max Healthcare, Samir Parikh, says people who lose their cool regularly over minor traffic disputes suffer from “Impulse Control Disorder” and find it difficult to rein in their bouts of petulance. Dr. Parikh says society on the whole has become more aggressive and increased affluence has reduced tolerance levels.

Personality traits apart, whether or not someone would blow his top at the slightest provocation on the road is also linked to several other factors like the amount of stress the person is under, the weather, influence of alcohol or other drugs , intensity of noise pollution, and even social disparity.

It is rather easy to imagine that turning apoplectic with rage would be a feasible task with the noon sun blazing, a 40 degree Celsius ambient temperature, and the roar and fumes of rush hour traffic punctuating the throb in a stressed-out head. Compound this with a tailgating car swerving across the lanes, and you have the perfect recipe for an unpleasant scene.

Dr. Das attributes it to “North Indian” trait of aggression and being “well connected” that is often observed on the concrete freeways. Commuters with “connections” wear their contacts on their sleeves and indulge in name dropping even when accosted by the police.

The economic disparity of our society is magnified manifold on the roads with each commuter being slotted according to the vehicle he or she is driving. All the four motorcyclists who allegedly beat a car driver to death on Monday belonged to the economically weaker sections of society.

Manju Mehta, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, who has been working on a WHO project on road rage, says frustration in personal and professional life often surfaces as road rage. “The personality of the victim also plays a part in what direction the altercation will take. In cases where the situation escalates into full-blown violence, the victims are usually the defiant and rebellious type,” she says, adding that the best way to defuse such a situation is to apologise and go one’s own way.

Rage offenders in North America and Europe are required to undergo a module in “anger management” as a part of their sentence. The cognitive therapy sessions aim at managing stress, developing empathy and learning ways to bust stress accumulated at the workplace. Only habitual offenders are put on medications which include mood-stabilisers and anti-epileptics.

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