Autobahns Used Aggressively

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31276, 24 January 1967, Page 6

Autobahns Used Aggressively

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter) MUNICH. Many West German motorists use the autobahns to punish other drivers for their disappointments in love and at work, according to Dr. Ernst von Xylander, a Munich psychologist.

“For thousands of psycho-logically-disturbed people a car is a dangerous instrument which helps them to get rid of their pent-up aggressions,” he says. “They compensate their frustrations and disappointments by driving slowly on the left-hand (wrong) side of the autobahn. “They want to take their ? revenge op those Who, they : believe, suppress them so- I daily and professionally, i

They punish others for their disappointments in love and at work.” Dr. von Xylander believes that political insecurity because of upheavals resulting from two lost wars this century may be another reason for the behaviour of West Germans at the wheel. “People feel a lack of selfconfidence compared to those in Britain and the United States where a relatively stable form of Government

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A ™* rri *B« dviser, Dr. von Xylander -, ntl y be . came banner-heiu ne 7 new « when he said that Q er S . ro ? ds ,n t«tobahns are the places wh«, neuro, tics terrorise with t.i, tions.” West Germany’s rou dMth toll for 1965 was 15,0? police estimate the »u r e may rise to around *nnn this year. 000 Dr. von Xylander &k s that psychologically-distuid people at the wheel con. bute in large measure to t. frightening accident rate. For him the “sick driver is one who maliciously blocks other motorists from overtaking, thereby self-righteously appointing himself a custodian of the traffic rules.