ROAD RAGE IN BRITAIN WORST IN EUROPE

To our amazement, the two drivers, both of them men, got out of their cars in the middle of heavy traffic and proceded to punch the daylights out of each other.

After a few minutes, they stopped the punching, shook hands and bowed to one another quite politely before getting back into their cars and driving away as though the incident never took place.

So why did I tell you that story? Well, first of all, because I thought you might find it interesting. And secondly, because I was reminded of it by a report I just read in one of the British papers. It appears as though a similarly astonishing scene took place in a Lancashire town a few days ago during the morning rush hour.

According to the report, a man leapt out of his car at a busy junction, snatched open the door of another vehicle and dragged the driver out. The pair then brawled their way across the road before another driver, a woman, intervened. She said afterwards: “I told them to behave themselves and asked them why they were doing this.”

She added that the first man, the aggressor, paused for a moment and then started coming towards her. She became worried that he was going to hit her. Nevertheless, she said to him: “If I have to, I will get between you two. But this is stupid. You are on a main road.” At this point, both men got back into their cars.

The woman said she spoke to the man who had been attacked and he told her that he was observing a new speed limit when the other man came up behind, flashing his lights and blowing his horn to get him to go faster. When they got to some traffic lights which were red, the bully used the opportunity to drag him out of his car.

This incident also brought back some memories for me but these were unpleasant. Some years ago, I was driving along a 30-mile speed limit area when a white transit van came right up to my back bumper with its lights flashing. I foolishly thought that the driver was trying to tell me something, so I stopped. He overtook me and also stopped, about 100 yards away.

It was when I saw him jump out of his van and hurrying towards me with a baseball bat in his hand that I realised that I was on the receiving end of a road rage incident. I took off as fast as I could but he followed me until, just like the man in the Lancashire incident, I too had to stop at traffic lights.

He jumped out of his van again and tried to get to me but I had triggered the central locking system, making sure that all the windows were up. In his rage, he proceded to rain blows with the bat on the front fenders, windscreen and windows of the car. But the glass on the 7-series BMW was strong enough to withstand the attack. He finally left in frustration.

I have since done some research on the subject and found that the UK has the worst road rage record in Europe, shattering the myth of the serene British motorist, as distinct from the temperamental continental driver. A national survey claimed that as many as nine out of ten British drivers had been victims of road rage. But more than 70 percent of them confessed to committing the offence themselves!

What is frightening is that more than 85 percent of those guilty of road rage showed no remorse for their crimes, many claiming that a bad mood had affected their actions. Across Britain, the most common form of road rage was gesticulation but 15 per cent of victims faced aggressors who got out of their vehicles and physically or verbally abused them.

According to Edmund King, executive director of the RAC Foundation which backed the survey, the findings are a damning indictment of conduct on British roads. He said: “Road rage seems to be linked to congestion and stress, as most incidents occur in busier towns and cities. It may be tough on the streets but that is no excuse for raging against other drivers.”

Gael Lindenfield, a psychotherapist and author of the book, Managing Anger, commented that British drivers used hand and finger gestures more than those on the continent because the British bottled up their anger and were too reserved to let it out in a torrent of abuse. She said: “On the continent, people will just wind the window down and scream at you.”

But RAC Foundation re-searchers believe that the key reason for road rage is the fact that drivers are bad at identifying their own faults but good at blaming others. They conclude that many incidents are fuelled less by the situation itself than by fundamental psychological incompatibilities between the drivers involved.

Their investigations reveal that drivers can effectively be categorised into one of seven “tribal groups.” Top of the range are “kings of the road,” aggressive drivers who are complacent about danger because they consider themselves experienced and able to cope with whatever comes their way. At the other end of the scale are the “suburban cruisers,” unhurried motorists concerned with road safety but not always aware of the effects of their own driving behaviour. Other groups include the “not guilties” who never consider that their own behaviour may be less than perfect, and “clueless” motorists who are reluctant drivers with poor road awareness.

According to RAC spokeswoman Nicola Thunhurst, the inability of a driver from one tribe to compromise with one from another is often what sparks road rage. She said: “Some incidents never escalate because the drivers involved understand each other’s temperament.”

That may be so. But do you know to which tribal group you belong? Give it some thought. You may find the answer quite useful.