Road Rage

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Oliver Schick

As if to prove a point, you really get strange ways in which the term is applied. Here's one that to me doesn't look like 'road rage' in the slightest.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/millionaire-businessman-admits-driveway-road-rage-attack-on-pensioner-66-a3333086.html

The property developer and owner of clockmaker Dent - which built Big Ben’s original chimes - was walking near his home when he stepped out in front of Mr Lyons’ car as he turned into his gated estate at 2pm on May 29.

Jackie Hughes, prosecuting, said Mr Lyons had to brake suddenly to avoid the defendant, who had stepped out into the road. She said: “They both looked at each other for a couple of seconds.

Why is this 'road rage' rather than someone on a hair trigger flying off the handle in a completely random situation?

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p:m:h in reply to @Oliver Schick

I suppose in the same way that the term 'accident' became commonplace for crashes / incidents involving cars, since it absolves a lot of the need to imply responsibility to an individual for what's gone on.

If I recall, there's a growing trend to stop being using 'accident' and instead use 'incident' (I think). It makes it sound a lot less like crashing into one another is somehow a given...

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Oliver Schick in reply to @p:m:h

Yes, I just hadn't picked that up. My perception of 'road rage' was coloured by remembering the murder (on a motorway somewhere) that I think brought the term into the collective consciousness. As it was such a big and scandalous story at the time, it didn't occur to me that it wasn't representative of what perhaps is the more common perception of 'road rage'.

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