Joy and terror. This is how the public views the festive season.
Now is the season to be merry and mindful.
Car smashes are a fact, but traffic and legal experts say that the real crash is in our mental state.
As many as 95% of crashes are caused by our dumb or wicked behaviour, estimates one East London legal source.
If we could save just one life by reporting simply on what goes through the minds of people behind the wheel who are about to crash, we will take it.
Experts say the mind is more powerful than the wheel, and they list their observations based on their experience.
An East London lawyer, who has done bench time in traffic court, sets the scene.
In his opinion, here is his breakdown of the cause of crashes: 60% alcohol, drivers are plastered — mostly in the 20- to-30-year-old age group, 20% of drivers were using their cellphone, 10% of vehicles were not roadworthy and 5% were speeding beyond their ability to control the vehicle.
Only 5% of crashes are caused by fate — or bad luck — a driver decides to overtake and a car appears on the other side.
If you are in any of those broad-stroke categories of temporarily insane behaviour, just pause and have a think.
Maybe make a personal decision to be better simply by being more conscious behind the wheel.
Cars are a pleasure and passion.
They are also vital in our lives for getting us to where we have to be.
Yet, we crash.
My friend returning from a soulful trip on the Wild Coast found himself in this dystopian horror.
I know him well from childhood, a fighter, a feisty, fun force. And kind. Very.
I watched him box as a child, saw him fight his way through tough social conditions, university, and today, having achieved so much, we find him fighting a simple battle, for his magnificent family.
A few days ago he was pootling down a straight section of the N2 on the Kei cuttings.
An oncoming vehicle suddenly appears from the right in his vision.
Bam! The moment we dread has happened.
When the glass, rubber and metal had stopped flying and screeching, he had to unstrap and step into the world nobody wants. Carnage, family hurt, kiddies scratched but OK — strapped into their car seats.
The driver of the incoming bakkie is taken to hospital, but the body of his passenger is on the road.
Another government official who enters this ghastly scene is arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, it was officially stated.
And while my friend dedicated these moments to getting his family away to hospital for broken bones, it was the sight of the lady on the road which kept pinging in his brain.
She was uncovered, and so he made sure some care and dignity was provided.
So what have Eastern Cape traffic officials observed about the state of the mind of drivers the moment before they crashed?
Then I asked two seasoned traffic officers, one a traffic chief, the other in the provincial office.
Both are retired but they have decades of experience and institutional memory to share.
What are drivers thinking in that split-second before carnage?
Firstly, nothing.
“They don’t think at all. When they leave home they leave their minds behind.”
Technically, we are talking about a loss of concentration.
Or their minds are somewhere else, stressing about children, relationships, work, life … they have a brain mozzie.
Or they are gabbling. Talking up a storm, gossiping, strategising, plotting, over-thinking, quibbling or having a big row, so many ways to be distracted by conversation from your one mission in life, to keep hands and mind on the wheel.
“When you drive behind them you can see they are in such a big conversation they don’t see or hear anything.”
Drivers who have lost focus do not see road signs. Mentally they are in “automatic mode.
Their focus is on what they left behind and what awaits them at their destination.
Dwaaling can be so severe, that when this traffic officer would pull over drivers who had shot a red light and asked what colour the robot had been, “I can guarantee you that he will stop and have to think about it. Ninety percent will say it was green simply because he drove through it.”
Some drivers have no driving skill or training. Many have been burned by repeated failures of the written or yard tests, and turned to corruption. You bought your licence.
“You don’t know how to drive, but you are behind the wheel,” he says.
It’s not hard to drive in a straight line but when things go wrong, you need experience and training, he says.
“If anything or anyone runs in front of these people, or they wander off the road, that is a potential accident, because they will jerk the wheel and then it is on the roof.
“If they come around the corner and it is sharper than they thought or they never saw it or read the sign … and they are on the roof.
“It is amazing the stupid accidents we go to. You can’t believe what happens.”
A lack of experience also brings a lack of depth perception — some drivers cannot judge distances, and at critical moments, such as overtaking, the consequences are dire.
Road conditions are definitely a cause of accidents, some roads have “more potholes than tar”.
Some drivers are “not great” on maintenance. “People buy a good car, then there are bumps and scrapes, then smooth tyres, then worn brake pads and finally no brakes.”
When headlights go, there are those who do not bother to fix them.
And that devastating issue of a lack of law enforcement: when it’s not enforced, people don’t comply. “It’s human nature.”
I am adding to this list: pure thuggery. Road bandits, crusher egos, bullies of the road.
Unresolved, angry, violent, pathological, drivers, greedy sad sacks who despise the rest of us.
Enemy number one. Jail time is a priority.
Apparently, for the rest of us if we are not being tapped on the shoulder about our wicked driving, there will be no change in behaviour.
My source jokes that in Australia, the chance of getting away with a traffic offence is “one percent” while the chances of being caught in SA is also one percent.
He also worries about poor policing of public transport. Few vehicles ever see a test station and provincial road blocks are checking only licence and registration discs and not the vehicles for roadworthiness.
“The wheels can be falling off and it won’t be noticed…”
Be wary of those eternally riding manganese trucks busy with the major extraction of SA raw minerals for China. Those drivers are on a bonus system, and can drive for long hours.
When they crash, there are fatalities.
The second officer, a former senior provincial traffic officer agrees that the minds of pre-crash drivers are lost in a fog of personal issues, are on those dratted cellphones or are lost in loud conversation with passengers.
Many have a tired brain. It’s been too long behind the wheel without a break.
Or you relax your mind, especially as you arrive close to your destination.
Long haul truckers are susceptible, and especially at night.
What does the mind do when we realise an accident is starting to happen?
“Reflexes take over, we can pull the steering wheel one way or another, tramp the brake, or stiffen as we brace for impact.
“There could of course be momentary anger, regret, shock before impact but probably the overriding reaction is survival.”
I wish you all a happy survival.
Pass it on.
If they come around the corner and it is sharper than they thought or they never saw it or read the sign … and they are on the roof
Some drivers are “not great” on maintenance. “People buy a good car, then there are bumps and scrapes, then smooth tyres, then worn brake pads and finally no brakes
