I’d like to share with you our experience of following Mr Crazy on the R103 between Vrede and Warden, in South Africa. We were on our way down from Pretoria to Greytown, to visit my sister and family. Unfortunately, there had been an accident and spillage on the N3 motorway, which meant that the road was closed and all traffic was diverted onto the R103 at Villiers. So for more than 100 kms we drove on a potholed minor road. There were at least as many trucks on the road as there were cars, so it was very slow going indeed.
One thing that became quite apparent was that the trucks were willing to take some serious risks on the road. There was one truck in particular that we dubbed ‘Mr Crazy’, due to the his driving style: dangerous and crazily stupid!
We were shocked and horrified at his driving. Unfortunately his number plate didn’t come out clearly enough for us to report him. And to be honest, we didn’t want to hang around him for much longer than absolutely necessary, as we didn’t want to become the first victim!
As you can see from this picture below, he wasn’t the only only one taking stupid risks on the road. Here is one incident we can share with you:
At this point there is a double barrier line, because of the blind rise in the distance. In spite of this, a white truck pulls out to overtake a slower truck.
Not to be out-done, Mr Crazy decides that he could overtake too, in spite of the fact that they are getting closer and closer to the blind rise. By the time he moved back into his lane, he was on the blind rise!
It is actually surprising that he didn’t cause an accident on that day. We probably watched about 10 different overtaking manoeuvres on that day, of which at least 8 were dangerous!
The state of some of the roads in South Africa are also to blame for some of the many accidents on the road. Have a quick look at this clip, which we took on the Greytown to Mooi River road in KwaZulu Natal:
[youtube=://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtliHdDQVlk&w=480&h=360]
Not all roads are this bad! All motorways are generally in a very good state of repair, and most roads in and around Gauteng are in a pretty good shape – at least the ones we have come across!
South Africans don’t know what to do at roundabouts / traffic circles. Watch the video here.
Accidents are not an uncommon sighting. Just this morning I was on my morning walk, when I came across this:
The car parked on the left didn’t stop at the stop street, and drove straight into the Volvo, who was travelling straight on. You can’t see it, but the little white car definitely came off second best!
In spite of the number of accidents on the roads (once we saw 3 accidents on the roads in one day), it doesn’t encourage South Africans to be better, safer drivers. You’d think they’d realise just how real the risk is, but instead, they have the ‘accidents-happen-to-other-people’ attitude … Strange that!
We are in South Africa for 4-5 months, working on a new internet company. If you want to follow our journey, please sign up for our newsletter (top right hand of the page) or follow us on Twitter: @LiezlHesketh and @TimHermolle
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