One day recently, we began to feel the heat — temperatures seem to be rising lately, and I don’t mean just the heat from the summer months.
Road rage is a topic I would have fully engaged in when I was younger... but as one ages, the temptation to lose one’s patience when at the wheel becomes a “think before you act” occasion.
For sure, there are days when if I feel that if I had a hammer, I would use it to hit the person who overtakes on the wrong side, the motorcycle driver who doesn’t seem to know his left from his right or the commuter who thinks that the street is a pedestrian-only haven.
I blame that on the increase in motorcycle riders on the pandemic years. It was a time when there were virtually no cars on the road and pedestrians were few and far between.
What is road rage?
“Road rage: aggressive or violent behavior by drivers often triggered by frustration, stress or perceived slights on the road,” defined by psychiatrist Dr. Dulce Sahagun.
Anger and rage
I was listening to a report on the radio about House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos III filing a bill seeking to criminalize road rage.
Representative Marcos seeks to protect the public from road rage, after his younger brother reportedly figured in an incident along the North Luzon Expressway, recently.
The Marcos-authored House Bill 8190 or the proposed Anti-Road Rage Act, aims to draw a firm legal line between ordinary traffic violations and deliberate acts that put lives at risk.
“We cannot allow road rages to continue on our roads. One reckless decision can turn into a lifelong tragedy for an innocent family,” said Marcos, who represents the 1st district of Ilocos Norte.
The bill defines road rage as any intentional and aggressive act committed by a driver or occupant arising from a traffic-related incident, carried out to intimidate, threaten, harass, retaliate against, or cause harm to another road user, and creating a clear and present danger to life, limb or property.
The definition includes acts such as driving in a manner that endangers another road user, using a vehicle as a means of intimidation or pursuit, and threatening or assaulting another person in connection with a traffic encounter.
Marcos is reported to have said that the definition matters because it gives enforcers and prosecutors a clearer tool to address patterns that often escalate, including cases involving pursuit, obstruction and threats of violence.
Temper, temper
The Department of Transportation (DoTr), under a proposed Administrative Order of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) on road rage, defines it as any aggressive, hostile, threatening, intimidating or violent act by a licensed driver directed toward another motorist, pedestrian, passenger, enforcement officer, or person, either while driving a motor vehicle or in direct relation to a motor vehicle-related incident.
The DoTr reports that as of early this year, road rage is being treated as a public safety crisis.
This is because of the reported “confrontational driving” cases over the last two years. DoTr says that Philippine National Police noted a 35 percent rise in road-related incidents in 2024, and that trend has carried into 2025 and 2026.
It was the rise of road rage incidents that have actually given rise an initiative from the Land Transportation Office to draft and propose an Administrative Order providing for the Rules and Regulations Prohibiting Road Rage on Public Roads and Prescribing Administrative Sanctions, including preventive, corrective and disciplinary measures.
The LTO and its duties
A report on the Land Transportation website focuses on data analysis based on available documents and statistics on road accidents and road rage cases across the country — with the goal of coming up with a comprehensive government intervention from the aspect of regulations and law enforcement to infrastructure review and recommendations.
The study and analysis three main factors of road accidents — human or motorist factor, motor vehicle factor and infrastructure factor.
The LTO hopes that the result would play a key role in their plan to revise the type of questions in the examinations for applicants of driver’s licenses and to come up with the new strategy on how to test the skills and readiness of the applicants.
Too hot to handle
If caught in a bad situation while driving or if your mood becomes too hot to handle: Stop driving. Get off the car and take a break. It is really is that simple.
Until the next detour.