Reader reflects on chaos in the CBD

Madam – On Tuesday afternoon, 29 September, around 5pm I had the inconvenient misfortune of my car catching fire on the stretch of Hardwick Street just after Smittie’s nursery, in the South bound lane.

I was able to extinguish the fire without causing major damage, but because the car was automatic and I feared it catching alight again, should I switch the ignition on, I had to leave the car in the left lane with hazards on.

I also put the emergency triangle approximately 40m down the road in the left hand lane to give traffic more than enough warning of the problem ahead.

I stood well away from the vehicle for good reason. Firstly the Transnat buses barrel down that road at breakneck speed, often going neck and neck with each other, while taxis and others jostle for position like the start of an F1 race from the Harding Street robots.

Then chaos erupted! A lady in her cute little pale green/blue Nissan Sentra approached my emergency triangle and came to a dead stop.( She had more than enough warning to change lanes before the time)

At this precise moment a driver in the right lane needed to turn right into a driveway at the flats. What followed was a screeching of tyres, followed by a taxi driver waving his fist and yelling at this driver in the right hand lane because he was waiting to cross traffic.

The problem was there was a lady in a little red hatchback who had reversed out of the same driveway from the flats and she had turned into oncoming traffic. (a habit that seems to have sprouted recently in this town) where she now sat because she had nowhere to go as northbound traffic was blocking her.

Now she was obstructing the guy who was trying to enter the driveway and also the traffic coming at her and while this was going on the nice lady in her green Sentra had alighted from her vehicle to move the triangle I had placed to warn motorists of my stationary car ahead. Imagine her confusion once she returned to her car to find the actual obstruction ahead of her!

All this could have been avoided with the following:

1. The traffic department did their job properly instead of parking off somewhere predictable with a speed camera. ( Paterson, Hardwick Street may be an option, hint hint).

2. The traffic department did their job properly, which didn’t necessitate the use of the present curbing which prevented me from coasting off the road out of traffic in the first place.

3. The traffic department did their job and prosecuted people for this new habit of driving into oncoming traffic, when they exit a parking or driveway, which is illegal. (As is parking facing oncoming traffic)

4. The traffic department did their job properly and prosecute drivers who use hazard lights for anything other than when a vehicle is causing a DANGEROUS obstruction and cannot be moved. ( It seems that a car with its boot and bonnet open and hazards on is confusing)

Saved by an angel