Learn from me – drive carefully on the Dolphin Coast

This morning on my way to work I was hit by another motorist at the robots in front of the current taxi rank.

This was hardly the first accident on Ballito’s ‘six lane speedway’ and it won’t be the last.

Driving as I do on a motorbike, it could have gone a lot worse for me – I may not have been sitting here writing this.

I did what motorcyclists do – when the light turned green I shot forward, and the other motorist did what motorists also do – she was trying to sneak through at the end of a line of turning traffic.

Needless to say neither of us saw the other and before you could blink your eyes, motorcycle and car came together with a grinding of metal and a snapping of plastic.

Fortunately this was a very low speed collision and neither of us got hurt.

But I couldn’t help thinking of times where I would be flying along the six lane speedway – maybe slowing down to 60ish when passing through the intersections.

If this accident had occurred while I was driving at that kind of speed, I likely would have been catapulted over the other vehicle and slammed head first into the road.

And I am not the only one who has a tendency to push the limits a little? Particularly with the traffic as bad as it is since the robots have been reprogrammed.

People are understandably frustrated by barely moving at all and becoming later and later for work in the mornings.

This has led to speeding where possible, illegal U-turns at robots/stop streets, cars (read: taxis!) trying to squeeze through traffic in the emergency lane, and many a motorist angrily hooting and shaking fists at one another.

Would it be worth it if you were to die this morning on your way to work?

As a journalist I have seen my fair share of accident scenes – twisted metal and broken bodies, lives snatched away in the middle of a boring morning commute.

We’ve all heard those little catchphrases a million times – ‘speed kills’ and ‘arrive alive’ – but we tend to ignore them, or barely acknowledge them – to our own peril.

Maybe we should all take a little time to consider how important it actually is that we get to work within the next five minutes, as opposed to the next fifteen?

Take a deep breath – calm down, drive more carefully and more vigilantly and you may avoid that accident.

Even if nobody is hurt, who really feels like having to deal with police stations and insurance agencies on a Wednesday morning?

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