The up-close view of a road rage

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Don Mills Road, which takes me home every day, splits around a small plaza called "Peanut Plaza". Three northbound lanes circumscribe the plaza at east, while southbound lanes bind it at the west side. The road is fairly wide there and traffic usually moves fast. Occasionally, there'd be a slowdown in the left lane, when cars turn into the plaza. I usually stay in the middle lane until the north lanes meet the south ones at the north end.

Approaching the traffic light at Peanut Plaza today, I saw a driver getting out of a red SUV stopped at the light in the middle lane. Presuming that his car broke down, I moved to the left lane. It gave me the front row view to a real-life episode of the road rage. The driver of the SUV, a tall and muscular black man, walked to a small black Pontiac stopped ahead of his car, leaned through the open window and delivered a series of quick punches to the Pontiac's driver. Then, before the lights changed, he returned to his SUV. The light turned green, but no one moved, letting the combatants get on with what was inevitably going to be a street race. The Pontiac crossed the intersection and stopped in the right lane, waiting for the SUV to follow. The SUV started with a screech and disappeared in the street to the right. Slowly, the rest of us moved on. The Pontiac's driver, a dark-skinned, young man with a baseball hat turned backward, was cursing after the SUV, but he already passed the street and could not pull back in the one way traffic, to give a chase. I caught myself laughing.

The whole episode was so surreal, it's hard to believe it really happened. Those are things you usually read about in the newspaper. To witness it first-hand feels like participating as an extra in a cheap sitcom. I admit, there are times when bad drivers provoke the lowest feelings in me and I imagine myself doing exactly what the SUV driver did: walking to the culprit and punching his face. But, imagining is one thing, doing it is completely something else. I don't think I could ever bring myself so low to actually do it. After today's event, I am certain I never will! Although, I can't promise I'll stop imagining it...