Road rage incident sparks outburst

THE Zululand Observer report earlier this week on a road rage incident that resulted in allegations of a police member assaulting and pointing a weapon at victims – including children – unsurprisingly attracted huge attention and condemnation.

There are two issues at stake.

The first is the escalating number of road rage incidents in South Africa, often linked to unrelated causes such as driver stress due to financial, personal or other problems and inherent personality defects such as aggression and impatience.

There are many ways this could manifest as road rage, such as excessive hooting, cutting off other cars, deliberately preventing others from overtaking, flashing lights, rude gestures, throwing projectiles, threatening language and waving or even shooting firearms.

Aggression and anger, often pent-up, are the triggers.

And for every action, there is a reaction.

Although mature people tend to keep their emotions under reasonable control, South Africans often resort to physical violence when threatened, confronted, maligned or angered.

Of course, the reaction is often worse than the provocation, which brings us to the second issue.

Whatever the reason behind this specific incident, nothing can justify the alleged pointing of a firearm at school children, and the trauma this will imprint on their young lives.

Especially when the alleged perpetrator is a member of the police force, well qualified in the laws of drawing and using firearms, one would have expected better self-control.

The matter has been handed over to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, who will no doubt act strictly in their investigations.

Without pre-empting their findings, both a criminal and a civil case could be the outcome.