Speed Kills. Bullshit.

What a crock. With all the speed cameras and other measures to keep drivers within the frankly ridiculous speed limits, the accident rate and death toll on South Africa’s roads is still catastrophic.

It’s not the speed of the traffic. Any accident involving a vehicle sustaining immediate deceleration exceeding 40km/h is almost guaranteed to be non-survivable.  Those ENCAP crash tests are carried out at speeds in the region of 35kph (look it up for yourself if you are really that interested). It’s the absolute incompetency and stone age attitude of the drivers that causes the crashes.

Incompetency: Take an arrogant young male, of 25 yrs old who started driving after being taught by another incompetent driving school instructor, and put him behind the wheel of a mini-bus people mover., a combination of 50 tons of rig and freight, a busload of 100 passengers, or even the family saloon. This young person has no experience in the finer aspects of vehicle control or safe driving. These things have to be learned, by practice, not instruction. Knowing what to expect from your vehicle only comes from pushing that said vehicle to it’s maximum capability, and that needs to be done in a controlled environment, like a race track. Anticipating other drivers’ actions only comes from years and hundreds of thousands of km of driving.

Then add the poor attitude of a citizenry still locked into a mindset of ‘traditional culture’ where pushing ones weight around was something to be expected, and admired, what a load of crap that ‘cultural tradition’ is.

Wake up authorities, you will never reduce the death toll on our roads by imposing speed limits, the only way to succeed is to get these morons off the roads. 95% of the motorists in this country shouldn’t ne allowed to control a kid’s tricycle, let alone any combustion engined contraption. 70% of the vehicles on the roads are not even safe to be on the road. The so called roadworthiness certificate is a load of cow dung, half the time they vehicles are not even inspected (but you wanted to give it to private enterprise, blithering idiots). 80% of the citizenry are, to quote John, a very good friend of mine, spatially disadvantaged. And if you don’t understand that concept, didn’t you read my heading statement about intelligence… Look at the common inability to park in a wide open space. Yesterday I stood totally amused at the efforts of one of our esteemd citizens attempting to park her compact saloon in a shopping centre bay. Turn too soon, reverse up the same line, forward again on the same trajectory that didn't work the first time, backwards, forwards, backwards... you get it? Finally left the car at an oblique angle, intruding into the bay on the left hand side. Guess what - the space on the right hand side was EMPTY. Please tell me dear girl, WHERE DID YOU BUY YOUR LICENCE? Damn-it, If I get to the stage I cannot get my car into a parallel spot with 15cm front and back free space, I’ll tear up my driving licence

Granted, I started driving petrol powered machinery sometime around 7 yrs old (on a track in go-karts and had to lie and say I was a bit older too) and road cars around 13…. And have well over 2 million km, without having caused or been involved in an accident where people were injured or any other that I have been the primary cause of for that matter. And I drive FAST, and have to avoid all you other arseholes out there too. That’s not too say I’ve never crashed a vehicle… The very first time I got behind the wheel of a kart, it was pedal to the metal, (brakes, what the fuck are those) round the first sweeping bend, and straight through the barrier at the next hairpin corner… Granted, along the way, I was privileged to have some rather useful input from an experienced rally driver, among others.

So, if you want to reduce the road kill, get your kids driving YOUNG, not after they turn 10, it’s too late, on karts (look at the likes of Schumacher and Vettel, both kart drivers), instil in them RESPECT for other people, not the dumb arrogance of ‘I’m a man, get out of my way’ our nation of puny brained primates seem to value so much.  Or just admit your ‘traditional culture’ culled common sense and many other worthwhile human abilities from your gene pool 10 millennia back, in favour of ‘sheer brute force’ and ‘a head that can be hit with a brick, there’s nothing inside to damage’.

And REPAIR the roads…