Two cars on the elevated road were fighting and almost fell off the bridge! Expert: This is road rage

On the evening of May 24, a netizen posted a message saying that a traffic accident occurred on the Shanghai Inner Ring Elevated Road near Yishan Road, and a yellow construction vehicle rode on the guardrail on the side of the elevated road.

According to the video recorded by the dashcam, the blue SUV was squeezed onto the guardrail by the construction vehicle due to changing lanes. The two vehicles drove parallel for a while, and then the blue SUV stepped on the accelerator to accelerate in front of the yellow construction vehicle, then turned sharply to change lanes and crashed the yellow construction vehicle into the elevated guardrail.

Weibo video screenshot

That night, the Shanghai Traffic Police issued a notice: the two vehicles involved were in a "fight" with each other while driving. The drivers of the two vehicles have been detained by the police.

Regarding this kind of "fighting" behavior, Liu Wei, chief supervisor and senior psychological counselor of the Gansu Province Psychological Intervention Volunteer Service Center, believes that this is a typical manifestation of road rage.

He explained that people are under various life and family pressures in their daily lives, and when they are driving or riding in public transportation, they may use gestures, words, etc. to attack others after being cut in line, stuck in traffic, maliciously shining high beams, or honking their horns. This is called road rage, which is a manifestation of compulsive anxiety among people in today's society when driving or riding in public transportation.

Liu Wei introduced that the psychological mechanism behind road rage is mainly caused by the long-term excessive pressure on the parties and their inability to regulate and digest it. These pressures include work pressure, economic pressure, pressure caused by children's studies at home, etc., and various pressures easily lead to irritability. When encountering triggering events such as congested traffic, bad weather, extended road time, and the behavior of other traffic entities, under the result of the interweaving of multiple pressures, accompanied by excessive behavior and excessive language, everyone's aggressiveness and desire to quarrel will increase to a certain extent, thus causing road rage.

"Generally speaking, road rage is prone to occur during rush hour." Liu Wei admitted that especially during peak traffic congestion hours in the morning, noon and evening, people may be in a low mood or feel depressed, and are prone to emotional outbursts when encountering more sudden incidents such as traffic jams and cutting in.

Generally speaking, road rage manifests itself in three stages:

In the first stage, when encountering traffic jams or uncivilized traffic behavior of other cars, they complain in the car to express their dissatisfaction;

In the second stage, you honk at vehicles or pedestrians that are affecting your driving;

In the third stage, they will compete with other cars by suddenly braking or accelerating to deliberately block other cars from entering their lane, or even speed up to overtake the car in front, and occasionally lower the window and say rude things.

How to avoid serious consequences caused by road rage? On the psychological level, Liu Wei suggested that if you realize that road rage is happening, the most effective way is to take a deep breath.

"Take a long breath to reduce irritability and control the upsurge of qi and blood, and then control your emotions by inhaling, holding your breath and exhaling. These can greatly reduce and prevent the occurrence and harm of road rage." Liu Wei said that if you can't relieve your emotions after trying, or even if your emotions are uncontrollable and compulsive behavior and compulsive anxiety bring greater pain, you need regular psychological counseling. With the help of professionals, you can be aware of your current emotions, understand the origin of your emotions, and use hypnosis when necessary to release deep pressure.

Chen Long, a traffic policeman from the Xingshan Brigade of the Sixth Detachment of the Hubei Provincial Public Security Department’s Highway Police Corps, believes that road rage may seem to be a psychological problem, but in fact it also reflects the drivers’ indifference to traffic laws and traffic etiquette.

In this regard, Chen Long believes that efforts should be made to speed up transportation construction, improve or even solve traffic congestion problems as much as possible, and at the same time strengthen psychological adjustment and education for drivers.

"If you are 'provoked' on the road, don't be impulsive. Stay calm, make full use of the dashcam, and record relevant evidence. Even if no accident occurs or losses are caused, the driver can also complain about the other party's illegal behavior on the WeChat official account." Chen Long said that if the other party causes an accident due to road rage, the parties involved should remain restrained and avoid "fighting anger with anger." Otherwise, the victim will become the responsible party and will also need to bear the corresponding legal responsibilities.

At the same time, the police also reminded that "road rage" while driving can easily lead to serious consequences. Drivers are requested to strictly abide by traffic regulations, maintain a good attitude, and never drive "fighting cars" so as to jointly maintain a good travel environment.

Source: Science and Technology Daily