Val van der Walt
A post on a popular SA motoring webpage caught my attention.
The heading states: ‘Youth are greatest menace on SA roads’.
A study conducted by a university indicates that teenagers drive like maniacs because of the scatterbrain music they listen to.
In view of this study, let’s take a look at how teenagers are being told to drive by the bejewelled moguls in the music industry.
According to Mariah Carey it’s very boring to stop at red traffic lights.
In her song ‘Beautiful’, she sings; ‘Hop on the back of my bike, yeah I like when you run red lights, don’t stop ’til you thrill me…’
While she’s making a killing with another hit, somewhere a teenager will be run over by a cement truck.
Some halfwit wrapper called J Dilla actually went as far as naming one of his songs Reckless Driving.
‘Start it up, put it in drive and whip it, I’m bouncing, I’m all in and out the lanes.’
But before jumping up to trash your grandchild’s CD collection, which will be a waste anyway because nowadays all the dodgy stuff are on their phones, think back a bit and try and remember what you use to listen to while cruising in your dad’s Cressida.
Remember Steppenwolf?
It was that American band which performed the hit ‘Born to be Wild’ back in the 60s.
‘I like smoke and lightning, heavy metal thunder, racin’ with the wind and the feelin’ that I’m under’.
Now do you understand your father’s concern and why he had nightmares of his car being turned into a 160km/h dopehouse?
Even if Oxycute still forms part of their every morning routine, teenagers who are old enough to drive should possess some degree of common sense.
But recklessness will always be perceived as cool.
Many young lives are lost every year behind the steering wheel and it’s tragic.
The best that parents can do is to instil a degree of responsibility into their kids and to hope that they have a guardian angel.
