A female driver, who was beaten savagely by a young man in retaliation for a dangerous lane change, made a public apology on Monday, stirring public reflections on China's road etiquettes.
In the apology letter publicized by a newspaper, the woman, Lu Qin, said she apologizes for her reckless and irrational driving. "I am aware of my mistakes and would like to accept any punishment regarding my violations of the driving regulation."
"I should not race in the car and I promise to abandon my bad driving habits," Lu said.
Last week, videos of Lu's road rage incident went viral online after being aired on television first.
One video shows the man, surnamed Zhang, forcing Lu to pull over beneath an overpass, dragging her out of a red Hyundai before punching and kicking her in the face repeatedly.
In another video filmed by Zhang's dashcam, Zhang was forced to a sudden stop by Lu, who changed two lanes abruptly at a side road exit.The next few minutes reveal a tit-for-tat race between the two drivers trying to overtake one another.
At one point, Lu braked suddenly in front of Zhang, forcing him to narrowly miss a cyclist.
Zhang, who is now in custody, told the police the woman's abrupt lane change forced him to brake suddenly and frightened his one-year-old child in the back seat.
Lu is in the hospital suffering from broken ribs, a concussion and heavy bruises.
While many believe there is no winner in the incident, Lu's apology has triggered reflections on China's road etiquette.
According to a survey conducted by the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, among 900 randomly selected drivers in cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, 35 percent admitted that they had felt road rage. Some had resulted in traffic accidents or disputes with others.
Tragedies led by road rage have been on the rise in recent years. Statistics of the Ministry of Public Security showed that in 2013, a total of 80,200 accidents were triggered by road rage, up 4.9 percent year on year. The number rose by 2.4 percent in 2014.
China is the world's largest auto market, with millions of new drivers hitting the road every year, adding to a rise traffic accidents.
Car ownership in China reached 154 million at the end of 2014, the Ministry of Public Security said in January.
"Road rage is an inevitable social problem when awareness of the rules is not strong," said Wang Anbai, a psychology professor from Southwest University of Political Science and Law, "when rules are not respected, people start to find excuses for themselves breaking the rules."
Wrongful acts occur when people are more tolerant to their own mistakes than others', Wang said.
