Last night (Sunday 4th) on one of the highways of Shanghai, China, the drivers of a BMW and of a Mercedes raced each other, then after mutually colliding, stopped to exchange words before finally ending in a fatal exchange of blows. The driver of the BMW ran away after the fight but was captured by the cops later that evening.
[I wanted to insert an image of BMW and Mercedes logos but somehow I can't upload pictures even if I create the directory for saving pictures manually through the site's CPanel]
Traffic is dense in Shanghai. In fact, the number of new vehicles being authorised to be on the road every year is regulated, in a Singapore-style measure, through the restriction of issue of car plates. Of course, you can have cars with non-Shanghai plates, but these have certain restrictions as to where you can drive it during the day (eg the elevated highways during peak hours) and they are perceived as “lower-class” by the haughty locals.
Those who have been in China would know how aggressive the Chinese drivers can be, especially as many aspects of the traffic laws don’t seem to be enforced. And as in India, it’s the bigger your car, the more rights you have towards the other road users / pedestrians.
Anyway, these incidents are becoming more frequent as the people’s tempers are more easily frayed with the development of the country and the wealth that comes with it. I won’t mention here the cases involving children of high personalities or army personnel. That’s for another time.
As for us mere mortals who use the public transport when we go out, let’s hope they don’t crash into us.