Fun In South Africa

[Lighting90]

Seems they have all the fun in SA..

South Africa's Diesel Car magazine ran this story on the front page last week..
A drunk driver of a 26-wheeler lorry became confused late last week and ended up driving down the wrong side of the N3 to Pietermaritzburg. Traffic inspector Philani Mtungwa made several attempts to stop the lorry - including shooting at it - but succeeded only when he climbed aboard and managed to pull the handbrake lever while the driver was trying to bite him.

The driver was eventually subdued and arrested by Mtungwa and duty traffic police officer Chris Pillay. The lorry's owner, freight company Xinergistix, at first suspected that the vehicle had been hijacked, and did not discover until midnight on Sunday that it had in fact been impounded.

"We have been unable to speak to our driver, but we see this incident in a serious light. We are yet to hear his explanation," said a spokesman for Xinergistix.

Opps, sounds like danger even on road in SA....

[Marc Lurie]

That stretch of road is notorious for accidents. As the road passes Pietermaritzburg (Murphree's current place of residence) it goes down a very steep hill, and trucks regularly lose it down the hill.

About three years ago a colleague of mine was watching his wife participate in a road race not far from there when a mini-bus taxi decided to freewheel down Fishers Hill to save petrol. When he came up on the runers, he realised that he had no boost in his brakes, and he plowed into the crowd. He killed several people, and ripped the legs off my colleagues wife.

:roro: South Africa has notoriously poor drivers. Mini-bus taxis are regularly overloaded and unroadworthy, and drivers are poorly trained.

My personal belief is that we need to take several steps:

1) We MUST introduce a points system on licenses as a matter of urgency.

2) We MUST institute a form of MOT test that could be done say, every two years. Currently, the only time a vehicle is sent for any kind of test is when it changes ownership. That means that a car could be owned by the same person for 40 years, and never be tested for roadworthiness.

3) Balance of Third-Party Insurance must be mandatory for all vehicles on the road.

4) Traffic enforcement agencies must not base their budgets on fining speeding drivers. They should concentrate on slowing drivers down, not catching them when they speed.

5) Forget about trying to catch drink-drivers. You can never have enough roadblocks to catch every one. I think that I'd not be far off the mark if I say that 40% of all drivers on our roads after 7pm would fail a breathalyser test. :eek: Rather, impose UNBELIEVABLY harsh sentences on people who have accidents while under the influence. Currently, a driver found above the legal alcohol limit will face a fine of around R10,000 for a first offence, and that's it. The chances of being caught are so slim if you don't have an accident, that drink-driving is a growing problem. If the penalty for causing an accident under the influence (even a minor bumper bashing) was say, 10 years of community service and suspension of your licence for a year, and a permanent criminal record, far fewer people would do it.

6) If mini-bus taxis are blocking the emergency lane of the highway, and there is an emergency in which someone dies because the emergency vehicles couldn't get past, the drivers of those vehicles should be charged with manslaughter or negligent homicide. :roro:

Marc

[Spysmys]

I know that road very well, around Christmas time (summer holidays in SA) there are at least one traffic officer (spietkop) for 4 people on the road. Not only does the officers work on a bonus structure but the holiday makers drive like maniacs. The highest "recorded" speeding offence took place on that road, an idiot clocked 254 km/h in a BMW M3 some time ago, I won't be surprised if that record has now been broken.



This stretch of road was also host to the first emergency truck stops, which is basically a 45m sand pit with half a meter of sand to stop trucks loosing all forms of braking. What they did not account for was the fact that rain hardened the sand and you can imagine the outcome of the first attempt.

[Marc Lurie]

This stretch of road was also host to the first emergency truck stops, which is basically a 45m sand pit with half a meter of sand to stop trucks loosing all forms of braking.

I've often wondered what it would be like to take the Defender through one of those gravel pits :D :D

Regards,
Marc

[Lighting90]

Sounds like a road to be avoided, mind you the sand pits do sound like fun.. :p

[Murphree]

Nasty piece of road....especially when wet and misty like it is right now. I had not heard of this incident but there was another a couple of weeks ago where a traffic cop was seriously injured by a trucker that decided to avenge his ticket by craking the cop with his wheel spanner:eek: OUCH!! Why some people think they can get away with this...this guy was caught by the other cops trying to run away down the N3 motorway.

[Lighting90]

Come on, lets see some pics, I am curious about this road now with sand traps and high speed pursuits.. :D

[Murphree]

Okay will get a pic of the sand trap this week ...... sorry can't guarantee a pic of a high speed chase:D

[K&S]

To you chaps overseas this must sound like the wild west; to us in South Africa it's become blase'. If you drive here life can be exciting to say the least. Thats why I like my series Landy. There's more metal on the front bumper than many new cars have on their whole vehicle! Even the mini-bus taxis keep out of the way... and that's saying something.:cargos: :cargos: