Road rage crimes in Greece

They had been looking for him for seven months because he had argued on the road, over priority with their younger brother, and when they found him, they killed him without a second thought. Now, the police are looking for a man of about 50 years old, who on Saturday afternoon cursed at a 23-year-old girl, beat her and broke her leg, because she was late parking and he could not pass.

The phenomenon of aggressive behavior on the road, which often escalates and even results in crimes, is recorded internationally under the term driving or road rage. According to an earlier survey on responsible driving conducted on behalf of the Vinci Autoroutes foundation by Ipsos, in 11 European countries, including Greece, it was found for our country that one in 4 drivers (26%) gets out of their car to argue with another driver, 6 in 10 (59%) admit to cursing other drivers, 57% honking unnecessarily, 1 in 2 (48%) deliberately “hangs” their vehicle behind the vehicle in front, while almost 9 in 10 (87%) state that they fear the aggressive behavior of other drivers while driving.

According to Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Christos Liapis, who in an article on ygeiamou.gr explained why we get angry at the wheel and how we can prevent road rage, the perpetrators are usually men, with a lower educational level, while the victims of such incidents are very likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder or depressive symptoms.

The driver of the motorcycle that hit and broke the leg of the 23-year-old girl in Pagrati is still being sought, while there are testimonies that after the violent incident he entered an apartment building. In the police report, however, countless incidents of violence, even murders, have been recorded, due to a misunderstanding, an overtaking, a "closing".

Murder over the right of way

One of the most unthinkable cases had resulted in the murder of a 29-year-old man in Agios Ioannis Square, in Agia Paraskevi, in July 2007. As it was found, the perpetrators were two brothers, one of whom was a border guard.
Their motive, as they confessed after their arrest, was that the victim had argued over the right of way on the street on Christmas Eve and had punched their younger brother. The two brothers had decided to find the man who had hit and insulted their brother on the street. They had been searching for seven months.

When they spotted him sitting with a friend in the "upper square" of Agia Paraskevi, they were armed, the border guard with a weapon that he legally possessed and was registered to his service (it was not his official one) and his brother had a knife. They asked the 29-year-old to speak and within a few minutes the border guard shot and killed him, while his brother stabbed the man sitting with their victim. A short time later, in fact, the border guard had rushed to falsely declare that his weapon had been stolen.

Crime in Neos Kosmos

One of the most brutal murders was the one involving a 58-year-old man in Neos Kosmos, last November. At that time, three young men, two Greeks and one Albanian, were behind the 58-year-old's car on two motorbikes. The three young men argued with the 58-year-old driver and began to chase him.

Trying to escape, he ended up in a dead end. There they trapped him and the 29-year-old Albanian began to beat him furiously: According to testimonies, he had grabbed his head and was repeatedly hitting it on the steering wheel. The man was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, where he eventually died.

Parking spaces

Parking spaces often increase tension between drivers. In one such case, on New Year’s Day 2024, a 65-year-old man stabbed and injured a 51-year-old man in Akti Kondyli, Piraeus. The two men argued over a parking space and during the argument, the 65-year-old pulled out a “butterfly” knife and stabbed the other man.

Last March, in Thessaloniki, a man beat up his neighbor over a parking space, and it all happened in front of her minor child, who was crying and shouting “leave my mother alone.” In fact, the man also stabbed the woman’s father who had rushed to help his daughter.