If you ask me, this city’s streets have become like the Wild West of old, with lawlessness seeming to be the order of the day.
Not a day goes past that I don’t pray silently while driving that I will reach my destination in one piece.
Drivers’ antics on the road often have me wishing to be living in the 1900’s when there were only a few cars on earth, and they did not have the technology available to us today.
Back then, motor vehicles could barely reach 45km/h. The famous Ford Model T, produced from 1908 until 1927, could reach a top speed of 72km/h.
Motor vehicle accidents in those days would probably have caused injury to egos, rather than bodies.
The world’s first known fatal motor vehicle accident victim was Mary Ward, who was an Anglo-Irish amateur scientist. She was killed in 1869 when she fell under the wheels of an experimental steam car built by her cousins.
Because there wasn’t much traffic on the roads in those days, drivers would easily have been able to use their cell phones (had they existed then) while driving, without anything untoward occurring.
Unfortunately, in today’s traffic, doing this is illegal – for a good reason.
However, seemingly many of Polokwane’s motorists don’t know or just don’t care that this law, as with all the other existing rules of the road, were made in the interest of all road users’ safety.
In spite of technology like lane assist, ABS brakes and airbags, lives are still lost. This loss of lives will not end until all drivers decide to focus fully on the road, and obey all the road rules.
Admit it, we have all seen motorists accelerating when a traffic light changes from green to orange instead of decreasing the speed to stop in time when it turns red. Some of us are guilty of having done this too.
A recent survey done by Discovery Insurance indicated that Limpopo had the worst drivers in the country, despite having less congested roads than other provinces.
In my opinion, another factor that makes our roads unsafe, is that there are too many motor vehicles and not enough traffic officials around.
If the laws of the road are enforced at all times without exception, people might start obeying these laws for fear of getting caught.
