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About four years ago the Angeliki Manoledaki she was driving from Petralona to Piraeus to visit her parents. As she says to “K”, this might have been another ordinary route if she hadn’t been caught by a red light traffic light in Piraeus. “The light turns green, I flash to turn right, and he gasses to pass me, without succeeding. He gets angry, reaches me, punches me through the window, shouting “didn’t you see me?” and disappears,” he describes.
The driver’s license violence it is not an unprecedented phenomenon in Greece, as it has been researched and observed by transport experts and even doctors for years. However, recently more and more incidents are taking on alarming proportions mainly due to the serious injury of the victim.
Fierce fight for a parking space
At least seven serious road rage incidents have come to light since 2023, with the most recent being two separate incidents that took place a few hours apart in Pagrati and Galatsi, resulting in a 22-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man ending up in hospital. Both had argued and received violence over a parking space. But people have also lost their lives in our country because of driving violence. In September 2023, an argument between a 68-year-old man and a 39-year-old parking company employee over a space in Piraeus led to armed assault fatally injuring an employee. Besides, five months ago a 29-year-old got into an argument with a 58-year-old in Neos Kosmos, and, as he confessed, beat him to death for blocking his way.
From the fight to the criminal prosecution
A case that was decided recently in the courts is typical, where a fight led to a beating and then to a criminal prosecution. As the lawyer says Vasiliki Tjortzatou, her principal had suffered serious bodily harm because he blocked access with the I.X. of to another driver. “Within a few seconds, the situation got out of hand and the perpetrator attacked the driver, causing him serious injuries, while also causing damage to property,” he reports to “K”.
“Such cases take about two years, unless appealed, and usually result in convictions for the perpetrators.”
The case was taken to the criminal court, where the perpetrator was sentenced to two years suspended. “What we often see is that such cases start from a trivial cause and end up in criminal charges. Perpetrators most often claim that the victim provoked them and reacted that way. “Such cases last about two years, unless appealed, and usually result in convictions for the perpetrators,” he notes.
“I’ve examined 30 victims in two years”
Speaking to “K”, Mr Manolis Sakelliadis, associate professor at the Forensic Laboratory of the Medical School of the University of Athens, notes that he has conducted dozens of clinical forensic examinations following a police order for drivers who come to him because they have been victims of driving violence on the streets of Athens.
“I alone have examined about 30 victims of driving violence in two years. Consider that in the service there are still two colleagues who conduct expert opinions on incidents that took place in the north-eastern and south-eastern sectors of Attica”, he explains, giving an image of the problem from his side.
Most incidents start with a trivial reason, concern private car drivers. and two-wheelers, while the perpetrators are mostly men.
In addition, Mr. Sakelliadis together with other researchers had prepared a scientific study at the School of Medicine of EKPA examining forensic data incidents of driving violence in Athens for the period 2012-2021. In total, 177 “road rage” incidents had been investigated at the time, from which a specific pattern of action by the robbers had emerged.
The pattern of violence
Five years later, he still sees the same pattern behind the pavement attacks. In particular, as he explains in “K”, most incidents of driving violence occur for an insignificant reason, such as the closing of a road, an overtaking or a parking space. Secondly, most of the cases involve drivers of private vehicles. and two-wheelers, while the perpetrators are mostly men. “I have examined a victim who even suffered a burn from engine exhaust after an argument with another driver,” he comments.
The majority of the injuries we see are located from the middle of the torso upwards, that is to say the chest, head and neck, which means that they are attacked before they even have time to get out of the car.
By x-raying the trauma of the victims after such attacks, he explains that the most common are crushing injuries and even fractures. “What is worth noting is that the majority of the injuries we see are located from the middle of the torso and above, that is, on the chest, head and neck, which means that they are attacked before they even have time to get out of the car,” he says.
Fear of others’ transgressions
Most incidents occur in an environment where, on the one hand, the violation of basic driving rules is frequent, on the other hand, traffic affects the psychology of drivers in unpredictable ways.
Her conclusions 5th edition of the European survey for the shared use of the road network published by the VINCI Autoroutes Foundation in 2025 state that 93% of those who move on the roads are afraid of the dangerous behavior of the rest, as basic road traffic rules are systematically violated.
Indicatively, the research states that 47% of car drivers. in Greece does not use a flasher when changing lanes or overtaking, while 67% pass with an orange or red light. Among motorized two-wheel drivers, 55% state that they park, even occasionally, on pavements, 56% park in zones intended for cyclists and 23% use cycle paths despite the fact that they are not intended for such vehicles.
