HOW fast is it necessary to drive? A friend has always maintained that it’s people who drive too slowly who cause accidents.
That’s because he liked to get the rev counter into the red and push the speedo’s needle as far right as he could.
It was slightly terrifying being in a car with him but the plus side was that you got to your destination quickly.
He also now lives in Australia so I don’t have to worry about admitting I was hitting imaginary brakes with my foot, simultaneously clutching the door with my hand.
This all came back to memory as, during the usual morning drive to drops the kids off at school, I encountered both types of traffic offenders.
The first was on the way to school. A taxi just decided to pull out into the road from a stationary position. I kept my line, perhaps unwisely, squeezing past the taxi and vehicles coming the other way.
I know it was ‘perhaps unwisely’ because my wife dug her nails into the seat, straightened her back and breathed in with sufficient and loud enough effort that I knew I had erred.
The smartest follow-up action was to stare stoically into the mirror, ‘glaring’ at the offending taxi driver whose vehicle was now hobbling along with its hazard lights on… and ultimately limping off the road.
On the way back, I then felt like the tortoise as a smart sedan came haring up behind me, never mind that the speed limit was being obeyed.
When the road opened up, the young woman weaved out to the left and gunned it down the double-lane stretch of road, overtaking about three vehicles.
Seriously, we’re all going 65km/h in morning traffic… what’s the hurry?
Traffic lights loomed large (inevitably) and true to form, fast woman in smart sedan was in a queue at the red light.
For a change, we had the last laugh, nosing past her, in the left hand lane, as she stared ahead, looking at nothing in particular, but definitely not at us!
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