More mayhem on our roads

I passed an accident today, at 3.30 in the afternoon. It had probably happened in the last 15 minutes, as it looked like a tow-truck convention, and the two paramedic vehicles arrived as I was next to the scene. It happened, as always, at the busy intersection linking Kommetjie/Fish Hoek/Sun Valley/Glencairn, and the probable reason is that one or both of them jumped the red light. It is endemic to South Africa that an orange light means accelerate and the red light should be ignored. However, you will frequently find incompetent drivers braking as they approach a green light, and even more often, not being in gear and ready to pull away on the change from red to green, thereby denying the line of cars behind them the opportunity to cross the intersection legally. This could well be a factor in our drivers' behaviour.

The cars involved were a Porsche and a Mini, both roughly the same size, and the Porsche knocked a robot out of the ground with what appeared to be a loss of a small amount of front bodywork, while the Mini was in the middle of the intersection with the front taken off and the engine in ruins. Overall, they appeared to have held up extremely well to a severe collision. As I passed the Mini, there was a beer truck on my right and a tour bus on my left and we were all headed for the same gap. Discretion was the better part of valour and I waved them on rather than become a tiny Golf wedge in a truck sandwich. So once again, bad road manners caused considerable inconvenience to all other road users.

We frequently see articles on the internet relating to 'The best 5 places to holiday", 'The best 5 restaurants in New York' and suchlike. Today there was a post on Facebook with videos of 'The 5 worst accidents in South Africa'. How embarrassing. They are all trucks and taxis causing mayhem and destruction with apparently little or no consequences for the drivers. The latest accident is not even featured yet, where a truck ploughed into 50 cars.

People don't like to be stereotyped, but until their most dominant traits fit in with what is considered acceptable in a civilized society, that is the way it will remain.