What should you do when you’re trying to drive out of a side road but no one on the main road is letting you pass?

While most would either wait patiently or gradually force their way out, while mumbling insults at oncoming drivers - one man in Ħamrun decided to chase the car that didn’t let him out and eventually kicked it in retaliation.

This was one of the recent road rage incidents reported to police, according to Inspector Pierguido Saliba from the police traffic division, who explained that police receive an average of two road rage reports a month involving motorists getting physically violent.

The most common triggers for these clashes are right of way and near-misses, he told Times of Malta.

On Tuesday, three men were hospitalised following a fight in the middle of a busy Triq l-Erba’ Qaddisin in Qormi. The shocking video of the fight doing the rounds on social media showed a bare-bottomed man beating someone with a baton.

In the video, a person could be seen on the ground beneath the rear end of a pick-up truck as another lay on the ground in daylight. Next to them, a woman was seen holding a dog on a leash.  The motive for the incident is not yet known.

Inspector Saliba said that his 13 years of experience taught him that such incidents were “not as uncommon as one would think”.

Earlier this year, in an incident near the skate park in Tal-Qroqq, a man pulled the wiper off the vehicle of another man and they started fighting, using the wiper.

He caught up with a bus and broke a window of the vehicle with a rock or something

Such incidents increased during the hotter months and festive seasons, he said, adding that cases of verbal assault were even more frequent. 

The inspector explained that, under Maltese law, there was no crime classified as ‘road rage’. A person who becomes violent while on the road is charged with generic offices that include threatening, insulting, assaulting or injuring the victim.

As a result police did not have road rage statistics. In his experience, there was no significant increase in these cases over the years, he said.

Stress, traffic and fast lives

Raymond Zammit, head of the Local Enforcement System, said that from his experience the cases of road rage involving violence are isolated.

Pierre Vella, executive chairman of the Malta Road Safety Council, shared the same views. While these cases are “very remote”, they were totally unacceptable in today’s society, he said.

“We all know that the car population is increasing and we need to adapt our behaviour to this reality. Anyone who holds a driving licence should behave the way they did during their driving test. It would not be acceptable to stop your car, get out a metal rod and start hitting someone with it during your driving test,” he said.

Bus driver Josef Bartolo spends a lot of time on the road. He has been driving buses for 15 years and feels that road rage has increased over the past years. As he makes his living driving on Malta’s roads, he often comes across people hurling insults and threats at each other. And, every so often, they get violent and step out of the car.

“Thankfully, this never happened to me. But a friend of mine was driving his bus in a main road when a driver wanted to come out of a side road. My friend kept driving. The other driver must have expected him to stop. He chased my friend, caught up with the bus and broke a window of the vehicle with a rock or something else… Everyone is in a hurry all the time nowadays and the traffic has increased. I often come across cases that are sparked by, for example, someone failing to use their indicators,” he says.

What causes road rage? 

Forensic psychologist Roberta Holland explained that various factors come into play when a person reacts violently during a road rage incident. These factors include the situation itself, personal circumstances and the person’s ability to regulate and manage their anger. Different situations involve the interplay of these factors to result in a particular outcome.

Situational factors include the way the incident unfolded, such as someone driving wrong way, cutting across, or not observing driving regulations. Personal circumstances also play a role since a person who is going through personal problems – or is very stressed, under-pressure and anxious, and at a possibly heightened state emotionally – is less in control. They may be more sensitive and reactive to the situation.

“For example, someone running late to work, fearing dismissal, could experience increased stress and anxiety levels. Factors such as the summer heat and traffic add stress to the situation and to the way a person is feeling and are known to increase the likelihood of such incidents. The use of substances is also a factor that can alter a person’s perceptions, the way they evaluate a situation, and their reactions towards it,” Dr Holland said.

However, she said, over and above all this, a person who turns violent in traffic has an inability to regulate and manage their anger emotions.

“This is not about feeling angry. We all get angry and it’s normal. It’s about how a person manages that anger and how they resolve conflicts or stressful situations. Stress, traffic and personal problems affect everyone, but few react violently,” she said.