Motorcycle driver Roberto Estandarte’s life ended at 45 during his argument with the driver of a four-wheeled vehicle in Barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City. Their altercation on Monday night, Aug. 8, 2022 ended in violence when the four-wheeled vehicle driver drew his firearm and shot him, hitting him in the chest.
Estandarte’s live-in partner was spared, and the police have launched their investigation to identify the culprit.
The altercation would have not happened if the four-wheeled vehicle did not nearly hit Estandarte and his partner.
This incident is a clear case of road rage. For sure, Estandarte was mad when the bigger vehicle almost hit him and his partner because they could be hurt if the vehicle had really hit them.
This was not the first road rage incident in Cebu. There were cases in the past, but not all of them were fatal—some of them were even captured on smartphones and spread on social media.
Why does a road rage incident happen? According to the US National Library of Medicine (NLM), there are several contributory factors to it, and some of these are [1] environmental/nonpsychological factors: A motorist could easily get mad due to “number of of miles driven per day and busy roads; carrying a firearm; and traffic density.”; [2] general psychological factors: A motorist has a “tendency to displace anger and attribute blame to others as well as unrewarding and stressful employment situations.”
The NLM further said that the other contributory factors to road rage are [3] associations with Axis I disorders: People who have anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder, or people who misuse substances may contribute to road rage; and [4] associations with Axis II disorders: Borderline personality disorder is an Axis II dysfunction, and a person who has this “seems to harbor the relevant prerequisites for road rage. This disorder is characterized by impulsivity (e.g., reckless driving), intermittent intense dysphoria, inappropriate intense anger, difficulty controlling anger, and transient paranoid ideation.”
Not to put the blame on Estandarte, but one could ask: What if he just let the incident go? He would still be alive today. One could understand why he argued with the four-wheeled vehicle driver—he and his partner could have landed in the hospital if they were hit by the vehicle.
As for the culprit’s violence, it is beyond justification. Estandarte was defenseless as he was not armed, and his killer must be brought to justice.
Traffic in Metro Cebu is ugly nowadays as travel restrictions have been eased. It is expected to get worse as the classes for school year 2022-2023 will commence on Monday, Aug. 22.
Undisciplined drivers of private vehicles and public transport units abound the streets. It is best not to confront a reckless driver, but report the matter to the police or the Land Transportation Office.
Patience is a virtue, and loads of it can help one to avoid committing road rage, fatal or non-fatal. Also, keeping a cool head is good way of surviving the urban jungle called Metro Cebu.