Saving lives on the roads
Dear South African road user: I am writing to you to share some thoughts about how you drove your car during the festive season, in the hope that you may consider changing one or more of your driving habits in future.
That we are sitting on 1 551 road deaths at the time of writing, down by some 200 for the same period last year, is little cause for celebration.
I know that black or gunmetal German sedan you’re driving cost a helluva lot of money, but I regret to inform you that it does not accord you rights which supersede those of any other road user. I am not obliged to move over into the emergency strip while travelling at the speed limit, simply because you wish to exceed the speed limit. I may do so at my discretion, and sitting so close to my rear bumper that I cannot see your number plate, won’t change that.
Oh, and on the subject of number plates, your expensive purchase also does not absolve you of the legal obligation to display number plates, both front and rear.
I know your gargantuan Range Rover has a big powerful engine, but it doesn’t really equip you to overtake a queue of five other cars and a slow moving truck in the face of oncoming traffic, because you don’t want to wait your turn in the queue.
After continuously overtaking dangerously, causing oncoming traffic to have to veer out of your way into the emergency strip, I note that after a further hour of travelling, you’re only about a five cars ahead of me. At the speed we’re travelling, that’s about two minutes. This means you’ll not arrive at your destination very much earlier than I at mine. Is it really worth the risk?
It appears that you do not understand the rules of the road as they apply to overtaking. It is not acceptable, nor legal, to utilise the emergency strip on the other side of the road, to simultaneously overtake the vehicle, that is currently overtaking me. Besides, that leaves little place for the on-coming traffic to go, to avoid colliding with you.
Still on the subject of overtaking, it is really not okay for you to attempt to overtake me in the face of on-coming traffic, see that you cannot make it, and simply move to the left again in the hope that I will in turn, move into the emergency strip to accommodate you. I did so because you had your family in the car with you, as did I, and there was no other way of avoiding a catastrophic accident.
We do welcome up-country visitors to our province over the festive season, and we are deeply grateful for the money that you spend here, but aside from the goods and services for which you pay, there is no levy built into our tariffs which exonerate you from obeying the rules of the road.
Speed traps are a nuisance I know, but they’re there to catch people like you who drive as if for some reason, you’re exempted from the speed limit.
Please don’t warn all of the other approaching road user when you see a speed trap on the other side of the road.
The idea is for people to drive slower because they’ve been caught speeding, not because some misguided good Samaritan warned them about a speed trap.
If I’m travelling in the overtaking lane uphill, it is really not okay for you to overtake on the downhill, forcing me to move into the left hand lane hurriedly to avoid a collision. The overtaking lane is for my use in this instance, not yours.
There are of course many other incidents I could draw to your attention, but since this missive might then become tedious and boring for you, all I‘ll ask is that you consider what I’ve suggested, and hopefully act on one or more.
The alternative is that you will eventually end up in a dreadful accident, and while it would be terrible for you to be maimed or killed, it would be infinitely worse if somebody else were as well, or instead.
The problem will never be solved with policing, that is quite clear. The solution lies with us. Let’s try to do something about it.
Written by Norman McFarlane You are reading Saving lives on the roads articles
