Road rage workshop sees victim recounting ordeal

A community awareness workshop to curb road rage and promote courtesy on roads was held at Growel's 101 mall in Kandivali East on Friday. The highlight of the event was a talk by a road rage victim on the ordeal he went through when he was abducted and assaulted three months ago. A senior official from the traffic department and a psychologist also spoke to the audience, besides an advocate who had kickstarted an online movement for sanity on roads.
The workshop touched a variety of subjects like tips to help tame anger on roads, advice to victims to deal with road rage maturely and tips for motorists to avoid such situations. "We see numerous cases of road rage in the city. The habit of people to not follow traffic rules and low level of tolerance and patience is the main cause for road rage. This workshop and similar programmes can be of great help. Increasing awareness and support of citizens will help in controlling road rage," said DCP (traffic) Mohan Dahikar.
Rahul Tasgaonkar, a 21-year-old student, narrated his traumatic experience of being kidnapped, taken to Mira Road and assaulted in September this year, merely because he had signalled a car to stop while crossing the road outside his Kandivali residence.
Advocate-activist Armin Wandrewala said, "The sad part is that we ourselves are the victims as well the perpetrators of this nuisance. With workshops like these, we can increase awareness and achieve our objective of making Mumbai roads more civil and safe. My online campaign 'SOOR' is aimed at recognizing and controlling road rage by bringing together fellow citizens to control road rage."
"Road rage is more of a psychological problem. Most of the perpetrators of road rage suffer from anxiety and depression. The violent behavior affects both the perpetrator and the victim's psyche," said Dr. Sajid Ali Khan, Consultant Psychologist, Kohinoor Hospital.
"Our appeal to the traffic police is to conduct a psycho-analysis test for each candidate who approaches the RTO to get a driving licence to help curb the menace of road rage. The candidates who have any violent streaks or hidden anger issues must be given counseling sessions in a civic hospital before their driving license is issued," said Vinod Haritwal, CEO, Grauer & Weil India Ltd (Growel Group).