At the speed of noise
They roar up and down late at night in their Super Duper turbo-charged, eleventeen forty hundred, triple overhead cam (the third one is in the boot) low profile high-polfied GT Wobble U X cars.
Lying awake at night or in the early hours of the morning has now almost become a normal pastime for most of us.
It is then that one realises that the year is not the only thing speeding to a close.
Other things are also speeding, but unlike the year that slips by silently, these other things kick up an annoying racket.
Hopefully they will somehow pass by quietly and not pass on. I do not wish that on anybody.
Yes, I’m talking about the youngsters and sometimes the not-so-young who roar up and down Kerk Street and the De Emigratie Road late at night in their Super Duper turbo-charged, eleventeen forty hundred, triple overhead cam (the third one is in the boot) low profile high-polfied GT Wobble U X cars.
Some of them even have turbo-charged, seven tenty 10,000-decibel boom-boxes for added annoyance.
Then let us not forget the revving engines and screeching tyres of the doughnut-brigade.
The latter are not so much of a problem, because if anything goes wrong and they lose control of their vehicles, they only knock down stop signs.
At worst, a street light or two is made to mimic the Leaning Tower of Pisa and spends the rest of its dysfunctional life at a precarious angle.
It’s the possible consequences of the “dicing” speedsters that are cause for concern.
Sure, by the time they take to the streets the roads are relatively free of traffic, because old codgers like me are already in bed, listening to them “dicing”.
The concerns are for innocent people coming back from late-night visits or events and who happen to be on the roads at that time.
A green traffic light in their favour can spell serious injury or even death if they are hit by one of the speeding “dicers”. This has happened in the past and could very well happen again.
Head-on smashes where slower moving vehicles are overtaken in the face of a lone oncoming vehicle have also occurred.
Law enforcement late at night is virtually, if not totally, non-existent in the town, which is probably why this kind of behaviour takes place when it does.
Street dicing often leads to disaster at one time or another and should be curbed.
No parent or loved one wants to be woken up in the early hours of the morning by a policeman or a pastor with the words, “There been an accident and your son….”
Christmas and New Year are just around the corner and this is a time for peace and happiness.
Don’t be the one to cause heartache to your family or anyone else’s, because you wanted to prove that your car can outrun anything else on the road.
If going out of your way to annoy people is your goal, remember it’s not so much the noise that your car’s engine or exhaust kicks up that is the biggest concern.
It’s the terrible “bang”-sound at the end of the noise that has us worried.
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