Madding crowds and raging tempers

Road rage incidents in Bengaluru are on the rise, prompting citizens to use dashcams for protection and seek police intervention.

What was supposed to be the final leg of a relaxing weekend trip turned into a night of horror for Shivasharan (name changed) on August 19, 2024. The 36-year-old software engineer, his wife, and nine-month-old child were returning to Bengaluru when, in order to avoid bumping into the car in front of them, Shivasharan applied brakes near Sarjapur junction. However, 26-year-old Naveen Reddy, who was in a scooter behind them, crashed into their car. Then, all hell broke loose.

Even before Shivasharan could get out to assess the situation, Naveen was banging on the driver’s side door, abusing and threatening him. Despite Shivasharan’s appeals that his baby was onboard, the accused first tried to hurl a huge stone on the windshield before wrenching off one of the wipers, smashing it on the glass and shattering it.

The entire episode, captured on his dashcam and a mobile phone, went viral on social media. “The glass pieces were all over my wife and baby. It took us a while to process everything that transpired in those five minutes. The person was in such a rage that even though passers-by were trying to intervene, I thought we wouldn’t get out of this alive,” said Shivasharan, recounting the ordeal.

Bengaluru’s traffic is infamous and legendary, and its recent byproduct, road rage, a great leveller — from a senior citizen to an IPS officer, from an actor to a techie, to even an ambulance ferrying an accident victim — none has been spared.

Fear, anxiety, and helplessness gripped Sahana (name changed), an HR professional, and her journalist husband when they were travelling from Madikeri to Mysuru in July 2023.

“A car nearly collided with ours near Hunsur at night, and when we tried to confront the driver, he verbally abused us. We did not want to escalate the situation, so we drove away, but he followed us to Mysuru, where he and three of his friends cornered us near a traffic signal. The group began banging on our car windows, leaving us terrified. One of them threw a stone at the driver’s side window, shattering the glass and injuring my husband. They also broke the rear window. We went to the nearest police station and filed a complaint. It took us days to recover from the shock of the incident,” she said.

According to one private survey, road rage was among the foremost triggers of anxiety for car owners in Bengaluru. Of the 22,000 car owners surveyed in the city, 57% revealed that they have experienced some road rage in the last six months. The other triggers included a struggle to find safe and legal parking (67%) and FASTag deactivation over failure to update Know Your Customer (KYC) details (22%).