lifestyle

Just asking: Do you have road rage?

 

Mia Freedman

 

 

 

by MIA FREEDMAN

I was sitting in gridlock the other day on a main suburban street, mid afternoon on a weekday. Slightly ahead of me, I became aware of two drivers wildly gesticulating at each other. Within seconds, one man reached across to the passenger seat and grabbed a cricket stump with one hand while undoing his seatbelt with the other.

He did this in a seamless and alarmingly well practiced move. Clearly, it was not the first time. Nor, I suspect was the cricket stump kept in his car in case he spontaneously wanted to play a bit of beach sport.

As other drivers watched, the cricket man marched over to the other guy’s car and lifted the stump above his head, pretending he was going to strike him with it. As they kept shouting abuse, the second man got out of his car, ran to his boot and retrieved a large mallet. They then stood in between the cars, in the middle of this beautiful afternoon and threatened each other with their make-shift weapons.

In the end, they both walked away unharmed but it left me shocked.

Is this a thing now? Do people carry weapons in their cars so they can terrorise and assault other drivers? Clearly it was naive of me to believe that road ragers had taken their aggro online and morphed into trolls.

Do you have road rage? Have you ever witnessed a fight on the road?

Still enraged? And want to be even more so? Have a read of this.