China to its reckless drivers: Rein in your road rage

Beijing (CNN)On the sprawling ground of Beijing Gongjiao Driving School, hundreds of white Volkswagen sedans crawled at a snail's pace as students behind the wheels practiced starting, turning and parking their cars one recent afternoon.

"When students become impatient because of the long queue, I tell them to consider this a preview of Beijing's traffic jams," said Geng Guizhi, a veteran instructor at the school, where as many as 10,000 people sign up in a single month.

"I tell them, you have to remain calm and patient."

That message is more relevant and important than ever, as roads in major Chinese cities become increasingly congested, creating a lot of frustration and anger -- as well as grave danger -- on the streets.

Thanks to continued rapid economic growth, government statistics show a 20% jump in private car ownership in 2014 -- to 105 million cars nationwide.

The World Health Organization has estimated that more than 200,000 people die on the roads of China every year.

From the beginning of 2012 to the end of April this year, police linked 104 million traffic violations to some form of road rage, ranging from forcibly changing lanes or overtaking other vehicles, to failing to yield.

Bad driving

The past few weeks, state media have reported several egregious examples of road rage across China.

In early May, a BMW car driven by a young woman collided with a bus in the eastern city of Xuzhou when she tried to change lane. During an ensuing argument, the woman asked two male friends to assault the bus driver -- and then verbally abused traffic policemen upon their arrival.

During the same week, a Mercedes-Benz car driver ran over and killed an elderly man in the southwestern city of Kunming, after the driver tried to cut in line at a toll booth and got into an argument with the victim's family.

One of the most disturbing incidents was caught on camera on May 3, as a high-speed chase between two cars in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu only ended when the male driver forced the female driver ahead of him to stop under an elevated highway.

What happened next shocked and outraged the nation: He dragged her out of the car, threw her to the ground and viciously beat her -- showing no mercy even when she tried to escape