Road deaths need 'radical' solution

[Voicy]

Yup, for some reason a lot of SA drivers are crazy aggressive with no patience. I did a long car trip with a friend (9 hours to East London), crazy impatient and doing some seriously crazy stuff on those narrow Transkei roads. It's not often I get nervous as a passenger but that...:wtf: all to arrive maybe 20-30 minutes sooner. Boggles the mind especially as he was only ever like that behind the wheel.

Mthata/EL drivers are the worst. They have this mindset that if you take longer than 2hrs to drive from Mthatha to EL you're not a real man.

You see too many wrecks while driving that road, but the ones I saw happening are:

• Oncoming vehicle's bonnet flying open blocking his view and I had to duck out the way.
• Car in front of me overtaking a truck and had a head-on collision with an oncoming car. Again, had to duck out the way.
• Driver in front of me fell asleep, drifted off the road, woke up and over corrected, flipped his bakkie.
• Also was the first to arrive on a scene with a bunch of bodies in the road. Tried helping the one dude who was still alive but he bled out while I was with him and died right there. Weird feeling that. One minute you're on your way to work, the next a stranger dies in your hands.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Start by stopping fraud and corruption at the licensing department...

That's a western/colonialist solution, so they can't use that.

 

[Cray]

Mthata/EL drivers are the worst. They have this mindset that if you take longer than 2hrs to drive from Mthatha to EL you're not a real man.

You see too many wrecks while driving that road, but the ones I saw happening are:

• Oncoming vehicle's bonnet flying open blocking his view and I had to duck out the way.
• Car in front of me overtaking a truck and had a head-on collision with an oncoming car. Again, had to duck out the way.
• Driver in front of me fell asleep, drifted off the road, woke up and over corrected, flipped his bakkie.
• Also was the first to arrive on a scene with a bunch of bodies in the road. Tried helping the one dude who was still alive but he bled out while I was with him and died right there. Weird feeling that. One minute you're on your way to work, the next a stranger dies in your hands.

Eish, hectic stuff

 

[Milano]

Like roadworthy vehicles and licensed drivers? That kind of radical solution?

Wooooah slow down. Accountability is way too radical!

 

[ToxicBunny]

Yup, for some reason a lot of SA drivers are crazy aggressive with no patience. I did a long car trip with a friend (9 hours to East London), crazy impatient and doing some seriously crazy stuff on those narrow Transkei roads. It's not often I get nervous as a passenger but that...:wtf: all to arrive maybe 20-30 minutes sooner. Boggles the mind especially as he was only ever like that behind the wheel.

Usually its not 20 - 30 minutes sooner, its 5 minutes.

But in general, we don't need radical solutions to this problem they must just enforce the existing laws properly.

 

[R13...]

Usually its not 20 - 30 minutes sooner, its 5 minutes.

But in general, we don't need radical solutions to this problem they must just enforce the existing laws properly.

Yes enforcement is very much lacking. You should see the number of high end cars speeding up and down the N3 between Durban and Jhb with plates removed. I once saw these two idiots stop and replace their plates because they'd realised there was a road block ahead.

 

[Gaz{M}]

Visible policing.

We have thousands of traffic cops, but I only ever see them parked near speed traps or on highway offramps or cruising down the emergency lane ignoring every traffic violation around them

Issue fines for the most basic of transgressions: broken brake lights, worn tyres, not wearing seatbelt, unrestrained children, changing lanes without indicating, rear fog lights etc. Make people poep scared to break even the tiniest of laws. Issue fines on a digital system and give cops a quota system, so that bribery is avoided, because they have to come back each day with unique fines for unique drivers. Make bribery punishable by a minimum 10 years in prison with no chance of a fine for the briber and cop.

Put a cop on every corner looking for all these things. People won't break the big rules if you catch them with the small ones.

Give cops real-time access to eNatis and other databases. Check licences, discs, insurance, criminal record etc.

Pull over random people throughout the day in quiet roads, not just at massive roadblocks and on easter weekend.

 

[Voicy]

An unpopular opinion by unionists, but it's long overdue to make 3rd party insurance mandatory. If you can't afford 3rd party, how the hell are you going to afford paying for an accident? If you don't have it in the UK your vehicle often ends up in the compactor. It'll also reduce the amount of hit & runs.

 

[wetkit]

Yip, police the small day to day stuff, like safety belts, stopping at stop streets, correct use of indicators and taxis.
Once that is sorted everything else will follow.

Stop hiding behind a bush with a flipping camera!!!
That is not helping anybody.

 

[ToxicBunny]

An unpopular opinion by unionists, but it's long overdue to make 3rd party insurance mandatory. If you can't afford 3rd party, how the hell are you going to afford paying for an accident? If you don't have it in the UK your vehicle often ends up in the compactor. It'll also reduce the amount of hit & runs.

In my opinion, no 3rd Party insurance at the least, then no license to drive or license for vehicle.

 

[krycor]

The radical change needed is proper enforcement of infractions other than speed. Speed should not be a manned operation and is the worst waste of human resources as this has proven effective with tech. Instead they should pulling the guys going on highway safari, no number plates, who don't know hwat barrier lines/stop signs are, how circles work, etc

And then following that up with road side court proceedings for the many who think a fine is extra toilet paper. If you can't pay with interest go chill in jail for a bit.

 

[access]

indeed. enforce the current rules/laws first before making new ones.

traffic officers need to be visible and policing all offences, not just speed traps as some said, its the easiest and laziest work. those things are money printing machines. i need to buy shares in them somehow...

not using indicators, skipping traffic lights, not obeying 4 way stop rules, not obeying yielding rules (yield to the traffic on the right), stopping in the middle of a traffic light intersection at peak times, cutting the queue line, much more, all these simple small things people transgress and create frustration in other people at the receiving end. it all adds up. that persons goes bossies and causes problems further along.

i also suppose always catching minibus taxis because they do transgress the most and then get accused of targeting them doesnt help, it probably discourages them completely. the city needs to protect their law enforcers no matter the political nonsense.

 

[spiff]

while on the subject of dangerous driving / drivers - a few weeks ago while driving home - I was in the right hand lane at the robots going north from the intersection shown in the pic. as you can see the RH lane fades into the LH lane to become 1 lane.

I pulled away from the robot, checked that there was no cars next to me and indicated I was moving over to the left, which I did to avoid hitting the island in the middle - when a car came speeding up from behind and pulled up along side me half way over the yellow line and refused to back off! so we both drove done the single lane with me IN the lane and this asswipe next to me half in and half out the lane!

so before I go any further let me ask this question is WHO HAD RIGHT OF WAY?

 

[Cray]

while on the subject of dangerous driving / drivers - a few weeks ago while driving home - I was in the right hand lane at the robots going north from the intersection shown in the pic. as you can see the RH lane fades into the LH lane to become 1 lane.

I pulled away from the robot, checked that there was no cars next to me and indicated I was moving over to the left, which I did to avoid hitting the island in the middle - when a car came speeding up from behind and pulled up along side me half way over the yellow line and refused to back off! so we both drove done the single lane with me IN the lane and this asswipe next to me half in and half out the lane!

so before I go any further let me ask this question is WHO HAD RIGHT OF WAY?

View attachment 373285

You where in the passing lane, he was in the travelling lane - your passing lane was dissappearing and you where moving into his lane. Strictly speaking I would guess he would have the right of way but he shouldn't really have been passing on the left either.

 

[access]

while on the subject of dangerous driving / drivers - a few weeks ago while driving home - I was in the right hand lane at the robots going north from the intersection shown in the pic. as you can see the RH lane fades into the LH lane to become 1 lane.

I pulled away from the robot, checked that there was no cars next to me and indicated I was moving over to the left, which I did to avoid hitting the island in the middle - when a car came speeding up from behind and pulled up along side me half way over the yellow line and refused to back off! so we both drove done the single lane with me IN the lane and this asswipe next to me half in and half out the lane!

so before I go any further let me ask this question is WHO HAD RIGHT OF WAY?

View attachment 373285

the car on the right has right of way, even if correcting a mistake, the car on the left must yield.

its annoying but its to prevent accidents and fighting over the same space.

 

[FoXtroT]

We could also try fine people who sit in the fast lane of a 4 lane highway doing 80.

If people who can't do the speed limit could just use the slow lane and the fast lane is used for overtaking we would be able cut down on all frustration of driving on our roads.

No more need for people to weave in and out of traffic.

 

[noxibox]

[*]0% alcohol allowance for drivers

And how would people guarantee their blood contains no alcohol? Don't answer that until you've learned a bit about the human body, food and alcohol sources.

Driving up to Hermanus on Satursday late afternoon, and a bakkie overtaking on a solid white line. And now we wonder why there are deaths on the road.

Considering South Africa has solid lines where it is clearly safe to overtake and broken lines where it clearly is not it is hard to take them as a rule rather than a guideline.

Lock everyone's radio onto classic FM.

Not if they're like Alex and his droogs.

The radical change needed is proper enforcement of infractions other than speed.

They won't do that because the prime driver is revenue generation.

but he shouldn't really have been passing on the left either.

It's quite obvious that there are many cases where is correct to pass on the left.

We could also try fine people who sit in the fast lane of a 4 lane highway doing 80.

If people who can't do the speed limit could just use the slow lane and the fast lane is used for overtaking we would be able cut down on all frustration of driving on our roads.

No more need for people to weave in and out of traffic.

That would require people learning to drive quickly and efficiently. South Africans can't in general even manage to pull away immediately when a traffic light changes to green.

 

[Cray]

It's quite obvious that there are many cases where is correct to pass on the left.
.

Agree, this doesn't sound like one of them though.

 

[spiff]

You where in the passing lane, he was in the travelling lane - your passing lane was dissappearing and you where moving into his lane. Strictly speaking I would guess he would have the right of way but he shouldn't really have been passing on the left either.

these aren't passing lanes - it's a dual lane feeding into a single lane.

I was ahead - thus IMO had right of way - I believe the general rule is "give way to the right"

this sort of thing happens daily at this part of the road in the pic. people in the LEFT lane will dice with you to get ahead and then force you into the island or to slam on brakes!

I've seen cars on the right forcibly blocked by cars (that were behind them on the left) accelerating past to get ahead so much so that they nearly caused a few rear ends.

 

[b_crazy]

You where in the passing lane, he was in the travelling lane - your passing lane was dissappearing and you where moving into his lane. Strictly speaking I would guess he would have the right of way but he shouldn't really have been passing on the left either.

You didn't have the right of way if he was next to you. If you're ahead he needs to back off.