Re: Road Rage - Understanding, Avoidance and De-escalating Situation This happened today morning, and I thought of sharing it with you guys since I can't get it out of my mind. Please read on.
My friend and I (both 20 year olds) ride to and from college every morning. It's usually one of us riding the bike while the other takes the pillion seat. We ride a total distance of approx 40kms daily through city roads. The onward journey takes place between 5:45am and 6:15am and the return journey takes place between 9:30am and 10:30am, through peak office hour traffic.
The following incident took place at Nagerbazar today around 10:15am. My friend was riding the bike and I was riding pillion. On the main road itself, we encountered an uncle on a RE Classic riding in the middle of the road, without a helmet, with his left hand holding a cellphone to his ear. My friend honked twice, but he continued riding in the middle of the road. We passed by the man, and my friend shouted at him asking him to keep his phone down and/or move to the side of the road. For people who understand Bengali, he said, "Phone ta rakhun, ar side e shorun", and rode on.
500 metres later, we heard the unmistakable sound of a RE coming behing us at full speed. Seconds later, the man appeared on our left and swerved towards us, intending to run us off the road. We stopped, and an altercation ensued. Both my friend and I were wearing helmets, and the man raised his right arm several times, indicating that he'd slap my friend. This happened in front of an auto stand and as expected, a lot of local autowallas gathered. From their tone we realised that they either know the man, or have automatically assumed that we're the ones at fault (two youngsters on a sports bike wearing full riding gear). At this point, the man got off his bike and we got off ours too. Both of us removed our helmets, and the shouting match continued. The man was apparently aghast at the fact that he was asked to put his phone down. He kept saying "Ami phone-e kotha bolchi toh tor ki?" (What's it to you that I'm using my phone?). He then raised his hand and slapped my friend across the cheek.
At this point, I should interject and tell you something that's relevant to this story. I've grown up as the kid who was always getting into fights. I've gotten into numerous fights in my school days, and I wouldn't hesitate to beat someone up who's causing harm to me or my close ones. Long story short, one of those fights ended in my best friend's head getting cracked open. He and his mother both convinced my school's principal that I wasn't the one at fault (although I was), and that it was purely an accident. It was a wildcard for me. My parents spoke to me at length and sent me to therapy, and I've never gotten into a physical fight since.
Coming back to the story, the moment the man hit my friend, I was enraged. I wanted to pin him down right there in the middle of the road and punch him till he passed out. My friend grabbed my arm and asked me to quickly hop onto the bike. There was an intersection less than 50 metres away, and he was sure there'd be policemen there. We raced to the police booth, and narrated our story to the policeman on duty, who then took his own sweet time to walk with us back to the spot. Needless to say, the man had escaped and as expected, the autowallas denied having seen the man slapping my friend. It was then that I realised what a huge mistake I had made: I had failed to notice the registration number of the RE. In the heat of the moment, this simple thing had escaped my mind.
The policeman couldn't do anything to help us. He then sat down with the autowallas and started discussing other worldy issues. My friend and I realised that we were simply wasting our time, and left the spot.
I've been thinking about the incident over and over again, and I wish I had done something. I could've taken down the man if I wanted to, and held him till the police arrived. However, I knew that without knowing what was happening, the autowallas would get into the fight too, and they would have taken the law in their own hands. Dialling 100 wasn't an option either, since the police would take a minimum of 10 minutes to arrive at the spot and by then the man would've escaped, aided by his "friends". I also didn't want to leave my friend alone at the spot and run to the policemen sitting in their cabin 50 metres away. What I could've done is, noted down the registration number of the man's bike and given it to the police. That was my mistake.
To avoid running into any more such incidents in future, my friend and I are getting action cameras that can be fitted onto our helmets. We have approximately 7 months of college left, and all we can do is hope that we have a safe commute everyday until then. Thanks for reading, and I hope penning this post down will help me get my mind off the incident.
Last edited by boniver : 10th August 2019 at 20:45.
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