Road Rage

At the peak of his Career, Toni Tetuila did a song called “u don hit my car”. If you live in Lagos, I’m pretty sure you know what follows after hitting some1’s car? It’s almost always ends in a fight. The medical term for this behavior is called Road Rage and it’s defined as an aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other motor vehicle. It’s characterized by rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Drivers who suffer from this condition usually flare up and become un-usually angry while driving on the road, not letting anyone or anything get in their way even when the right of way is clearly not theirs.

I'm gonna bash your face in

If you’ve ever responded in any of the following manner below on the road, you most likely suffer from Road Rage:
• Generally aggressive driving, including sudden acceleration, braking, and close tailgating.
• Cutting others off in a lane, or deliberately preventing someone from merging.
• Sounding the vehicle's horn in intimidating or threatening melodies.
• Flashing lights excessively.
• Yelling or exhibiting disruptive behavior at roadside establishments.
• Driving at high speeds in the median of a highway to terrify drivers in both lanes.

I say this a dozen times on the way home
• Rude gestures (such as "the finger", or "mean face").
• Shouting verbal abuses or threats.
• Intentionally causing a collision between vehicles.
• Hitting other vehicles.
• Exiting the car to attempt to start confrontations, including striking other vehicles with an object.
• Threatening to use or using a firearm or other deadly weapon.
• Throwing projectiles from a moving vehicle with the intent of damaging other vehicles.

Well it’s safe to say then that almost every driver in Lagos suffers from Road Rage.


A lady flipping someone off
Here are a few ways of dealing with Road Rage;
• Get sufficient sleep. Quite a good number of people in this town sleep less than 5hours a day!!! Small wonder they get pissed off so easily.
• Plan ahead. If you meant to get to work at 7.30am, you need to incorporate the extra amount of time you’ll spend in traffic to get there. So get everything you’ll need the night before.
• Don’t take your anger out on the road. If your boss got you really angry back at the office, please leave the anger there. Do not take it out on the next fellow whose spouse probably pissed off and is trying to contain it.
• Turn down the music. It’s believed that loud and aggressive music influences our driving style. If you feel a rage coming on, listen to some Michael Bolton songs or I-FM
• Breathe in and out. Martin Lawrence tried same in the Bad boy’s sequel. He’d been under pressure from work and his therapist advised he tries the breathing technique.
• Pray every morning before leaving your house. There are a lot of really messed up people out there. People who have problems you cannot imagine!!!!!!!!!!!! Your prayer should always be that you never come across such people.