HIGHWAY MADNESS
When drivers lose control
The Oscar contender La La Land opens with a shot of a crowded Los Angeles highway when the lives of Mia, an aspiring actress, and Sebastian, a struggling jazz pianist, collide for the first time over a fit of road rage. Consumed by thoughts of an upcoming audition, Mia, at the driver’s wheel, fails to notice the surrounding traffic surging ahead of her. Sebastian, stuck behind her car, begins honking his horn in building frustration. The scene starts with an angsty encounter but ends in an adorable song and dance.
In reality, however, we know that incidents of road rage rarely lead to romance. Many tend to end in confrontation or, at their worst, violence. Few places are more familiar with this story than Thailand.
Marisa Chimprabha was the victim of another driver’s road rage a few years ago. One morning, she was driving along Bang Na-Trat Road in Bangkok on her way to work when a driver abruptly swerved into her lane, nearly scraping her vehicle.
“I honked as a warning to the driver that what he was doing was dangerous,” she said. “The man was angry. He made a gesture for me to pull over to the side of the road. I was stupid enough to stop and lower my window to talk to him.”
As soon as she lowered her window, the man aimed a punch straight at her face. He drove away quickly afterwards, leaving Ms Marisa with a cut and bruise on her eye.
She says she’s now more cautious when dealing with bad drivers.
“I stopped making eye contact with drivers in their cars, as I fear they could misunderstand my intentions … I’ll still blow the horn sometimes, though,” she said.
Incidents like these have become commonplace on Thailand’s traffic-ridden roads, especially in major cities like Bangkok.
Last month Nawapol Peungpai, 17, was shot dead by Suthep Pochanasomboon, a 50-year-old engineer, after they entered a road-related spat in Chon Buri province.
It began in a parking lot where the two had argued about Mr Nawapol’s van blocking Mr Suthep’s parked vehicle. When Mr Suthep left the lot, Mr Nawapol, in his vehicle alongside other passengers, started to follow him. Somewhere along the way, Mr Suthep decided to stop his car on the side of the road. Mr Nawapol and his group of fellow young men stepped out of the van.
In the video clip of the incident, they seem to
be ready to attack Mr Suthep. The group can be heard provoking him in the clip, shouting: “Do you think you’re a good one, oldie?” As the group approaches Mr Suthep, still seated at the wheel, pulls out a gun on Mr Nawapol and shoots him. He was later pronounced dead.
While the case is subject to court proceedings, a public debate is now swirling around how the incident got started and how it could have been avoided.
“People see themselves as being at the centre of the universe,” said Pattanadesh Asasappakij, the host of a TV programme about cars, a Thai take on Top Gear, and all-around automobile guru.
“When someone overtakes somebody else on the road, they tend to take the move personally. Some think that if a driver passes his car, he’s showing that he’s superior to others on the road.
“Thais see cars as markers of social status. Luxury car drivers tend to want to show off by pushing the speed limit, while the drivers of old cars don’t want to engage in any trouble at all. It is almost impossible to fix this very elitist attitude.”
This controversial attitude was exemplified in one of last year’s most high-profile road rage incidents featuring Akanat “Nott” Ariyaritwikul, a famous TV host. After experiencing a minor collision with a motorcyclist while driving his Mini, Nott stepped out of his vehicle and struck the motorcyclist across the face.
He then ordered the motorcyclist to krab — to respectfully bow his head — towards his Mini as an apology to the expensive vehicle.
Besides the drivers themselves, another element mitigating road rage is law enforcement.
“The traffic police must be more strict with enforcing traffic rules — as if they are a referee in a football match — to ensure fairness to all,” said Pattanadesh.
Pattanadesh says, when it comes to handling accidents, drivers should not serve as the referees themselves. “Don’t try to play the role of law enforcer to only take revenge on other drivers’ reckless behaviour.”
Pattanadesh conducts driving training courses for corporate drivers. The behaviour of the drivers can, for better or worse, affect the company’s reputation, he says. He instructs his trainees to remain firmly focused on following the rules of the road, and staying concentrated.
“Today drivers have more distractions such as mobile phones and other gadgets, which can turn their attention away from the task of driving,” he said. “They must always be aware that they are inside a powerful machine that can kill people if used recklessly.”
It’s also the role of passengers in surrounding vehicles to not act like rowdy ringside spectators, egging on the drivers as if they were watching a boxing match.
“Sometimes road rage happens because other passengers urge the driver to get even with the
When someone overtakes somebody else on the road, they tend to take the move personally
PATTANADESH ASASAPPAKIJ CAR GURU
other car, triggering a mob-like psychology. People should learn to start telling drivers to let it go instead of supporting this approach of ‘I will avenge your bad behaviour’, ” said Pattanadesh. Cases of road rage, and especially those involving celebrities, are quick to capture public attention.
Police aren’t always around to mediate the outcome of each case. But fellow drivers on the road move quickly to catch these incidents on tape. The mobile phone has become the most reliable witness in these instances.
Viewers then become the judges. Sometimes the social judgement created by these events can be more severe than the legal sentencing.
In March of last year, Pattarasak Thiemprasert, more commonly known as DJ Keng, was caught lying about a road accident he had with a driver of a Yaris car. Pattarasak initially blamed the Yaris driver, saying his recklessness alone was responsible for the accident.
But a clip on social media soon debunked this lie, showing Pattarasak attempting to ram into the Yaris car after a heated exchange. The clip got over one million viewers in one day.
The public backlash was severe. Pattarasak, like Nott, was fired after the incident surfaced.
Both put their showbusiness careers on hold and sought spiritual redemption by enrolling in monkhood — an act to gain the public’s forgiveness.
Apichart Jariyavilas, a psychiatrist and spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health’s Mental Health Department, told Spectrum that road rage is shaped by both external and internal factors.
“Road rage depends on a person’s ability to control their emotions under stressful circumstances,” said Dr Apichart. “If one is raised to be more immune from such emotions, he or she are able to deal with these incidents well.
“External factors related to road rage involve the environment, traffic, people’s hurriedness and the weather. These can all cause stress when a person is already under strain on the road.
“If a person tends to display a high temper and lacks tolerance, their stress will be heightened to the point where he or she cannot control themselves,” he said.
He added that Thai people tend to think of driving as a way to flaunt social status.
“For instance, when someone overtakes your car or jumps a lane, some wrongly think he loses face for letting someone get ahead of him. And one has to get back in return,” he said.
If one is raised in an abusive environment, he or she could also develop a higher tendency of using violence to express their rage on the road, Dr Apichart added.
Triggering factors can also vary based on a country’s road culture.
“In some countries, using a horn on the street is considered normal,” said Dr Apichart. “But for some it’s seen as rude.”
In these places, the drivers are forced to contain their stress while driving.
“We have to be aware all the time that the purpose of driving is to deliver oneself to a destination safely. The road is not a place to vent our emotions,” Dr Apichart said.
He finally urges people to practise forgiveness to ease stress on the road.
“I think the wai is a valuable asset in our culture. After an accident, if one chooses to wai and show his or her willingness to apologise to the other party, it will help lessen the tension at the scene a lot.”