Why Road Accidents Happen (And What To Do About Them)

HERE is my take on traffic accidents and what causes them, and some things drivers should take note of.

1) Arrogance: Some people believe that they own the road and are entitled to behave in any manner they like. These people will, for example, crawl along at a snail’s pace, but will not allow anyone to overtake them. They then speed up or move into the middle of the road. If you honk your horn while they are misbehaving, they let fly with foul language and finger signals. They will slow down at a green light, only to cross when it turns red. Some even try to run people off the road, as has happened to, and was reported by a well-known journalist. It has happened to me and some friends as well.
2) Traffic signs: Might just as well not be there. People will start driving before a light turns green while at the same time others keep going after it turned red. Bang! Stop signs seem to be invisible to many drivers as well.
3) Overtaking: Drivers overtaking without regard to visibility (blind rises, fog, rain, curved road, etc) or oncoming traffic. This is probably the biggest killer outside of town. ‘No overtaking’ road markings and signs are invisible too.
4) Driving skills: Pathetic! Every day I see people not even capable of getting into or out of a parking bay without reversing 6 times! People are also not familiar with the physical limits of their vehicles such as braking distance, roadholding on different surfaces, acceleration while overtaking or the speed at which a corner can be safely taken. Just look at all the trees that have been run over in Hosea Kutako Drive past the cemetery. Sheer incompetence. Same goes for all the traffic lights and road signs which are run over every single day. The licences of these maniacs should be suspended until they complete a mandatory retest.
5) Speed: Speed kills? It’s not as easy as that. The real problem is drivers not being willing or able to adjust their speed to prevailing conditions. If drivers had any common sense at all, we would need no speed limits. If the allowed speed in town is 60, this does not mean that you can go 60 in a parking area or a road in a residential area where kids might be playing. Other factors calling for reduced speed are wet roads, bad light or darkness, animals, rain, fog and any other situation where something unexpected can happen. Conversely, going 150 in the proper conditions is quite safe. This is why German autobahns often have no speed limit at all.
6) Gravel, sand and salt roads: These roads are especially dangerous. Loose gravel in corners, stones, and a steep ditch on the side of the road can easily cause a driver to lose control. In a case when the car moves too far left and the left wheels have left the road, any sudden move will spell disaster. Reducing speed (no hard braking!) before trying to get back on the road is the best way. Panic, and you are dead.
7) Defensive driving: Better get there late than never! Always expect the worst, anticipate a problem before it happens. If the light goes green, make sure the others are really going to stop. If you want to turn right, keep right, if you turn left, keep left. Don’t hog the middle of the road. Give others a chance, don’t always insist on your right of way. If you are waiting to move into a parking spot, keep left as far as possible. If someone indicates he wants to change lanes, allow him to do so.
8) Tailgating: Keep a proper following distance! The faster you go, the heavier the vehicle, the larger the distance must be. You must be able to stop even if the one in front suddenly comes to a dead stop! The bus accident at Kapps Farm was caused by tailgating.
9) Pedestrians: People cross the streets wherever and whenever they want, without even once looking left or right. Traffic lights are always ignored, and to hell with oncoming traffic! Challenge the City Police to put plainclothes officers at the clock tower and at the intersection Mandume/Fidel Castro to observe what is going on. People are also walking right in the middle of the road, instead of on the side or the pavement. No wonder somebody gets run over every other day! Are people even taught how to cross a road in our schools?
10) Overloading: People should realise that the heavier a vehicle is loaded, the longer its braking distance gets, and the handling of the car also decreases. Heavy loads on the roof elevate the centre of gravity, making a vehicle liable to flip over on a corner. A strong gust of wind can do the same.
11) Mechanical faults: Rarely the true cause of an accident, as long as the vehicle and tyres are in good shape. Those so-called tyre blowouts are vastly overrated, at least for cars under 3 500 Kg. If a driver does not panic and slam on the brakes, but just takes his foot of the gas, brakes gently and keeps the steering wheel steady, there should be no problem.
Many accidents are blamed on tyres, but in most cases the tyres actually got destroyed only during the accident! It is just convenient to blame the tyres instead bad driving.
12) Law enforcement: Useless most of the time. Writing parking tickets while they can see much worse offences going on under their noses?
How many do they catch for skipping red lights, skipping stop signs, reckless overtaking, jaywalking, speeding in residential areas, doing tyre burnouts, running over traffic signs, etc? There should be hundreds a day! The officers at those notorious roadblocks either harass innocent people, especially tourists; or they hide in their shelters, especially in bad or cold weather and at night, and do nothing whatsoever. How many people with stolen goods or poached meat have they caught? How do minibuses with 28 people on board get through? And why do they ask: ‘Where do you come from and where do you go?’ Are we not in a free country where we can go wherever we want? Does Nampol traffic patrol the highways and arrest reckless drivers? Rarely. At best they set up a speed trap.
Then there was the fiasco at the roadblock north of Windhoek, with cars queuing for miles on end! Do they really think by letting people bake in the sun for an eternity that they can improve safety? People get hot, tired and angry, and many will make up time by speeding. A recipe for more carnage! And when is the City going to crack down on these taxi drivers who keep honking their horns at all and sundry? Not even in front of the RC hospital will you find any quiet; even though it is expressly forbidden to use your horn next to a hospital or church? Apart from that, a horn may only be used as a warning signal. This practice is not only annoying, it is downright dangerous as it distracts other drivers, and makes one ignore all horns, whether justified or not.
13) Animals: Especially dangerous at night. Except for reduced speed and good lights, nothing can be done about wildlife. But it as about time that farmers who let their livestock wander onto tarred roads without supervision be prosecuted.
14) Roads authority and City traffic: It baffles me why the area directly adjacent to as road is not levelled with a grader, and why the shoulders of some roads have to be so steep that it is virtually impossible to regain control should one have veered off the road even slightly, for example the Swakop-Henties or the Kupferberg road. Then there are these enormous Cat’s Eyes in the road just south of Kruin (20 km south of Windhoek). They are a death trap for any motorcyclist who happens to hit one. They could easily destroy a car’s tyres as well. Who authorised these death traps? I would really like a reporter to take photographs of these monstrosities and publish them. But no, the roads authorities rather kick up a big fuss over a cross along the roadside where someone was killed. Maybe they should rather put one up for every person who died. Would make people think, at least.
15) Booze: Just lay off it. And don’t drive with a bad hangover either! It is even worse. Sleeping pills and some other medicines also can have similar effects. By the way, ambushing people coming out of a restaurant is sick, period. Rather pull people o
ff the road at complete random (say, every fifth car) and test them. In this way we would also get a clearer picture of the prevalence of drunk driving. And are they just ambushing posh restaurants, or shebeens as well? I’ve heard some nasty allegations about who is targeted and who is not. If I were to use the ambush method, and with some patience, I could in all probability catch 75% of all police officers and judges within 3 months. Probably 80% of all drivers are tipsy at least every now and then.
16) Point system: A very useful idea would be the introduction of a Traffic Penalty Point System where an offender is given a set amount of points for each offence, say 1 for a parking offence, 5 for skipping a stop sign etc. Each point lasts 3 years and then expires. At, say 20 points, you lose your license for 6 months. For taxis, the taxi licence should be suspended as well. This system works well in Europe.
Traffic fines should be calculated as a percentage of an offenders salary, rather than a fixed amount, so that rich people also feel the punch. As it is now, they just pay and do not give a hoot.
As far as I am concerned, this Xupifa thing or whatever, is all bark and no bite. If they taught responsible citizenship in school, maybe we would get somewhere.
Readers can feel free to send me a mail, but I promise no answers.

The Sandcat
(The_Sandcat@yahoo.com)
Note: Real name and address provided – Ed