Louis van Rensburg, News24 User
I read, with shock, that a motorcyclist has been killed after hitting a pedestrian on the N12.
Having just bought a motorcycle a few weeks ago, I know that there is an inherent risk to riding a bike. This I accept. I accept that a biker will normally come off worse when involved with a motorcar. I try to compensate for the fact that some motorists do not check their rear view mirrors and fail to acknowledge that motorcyclist have a right to use the roads. They probably also do not know that lane splitting is legal (the practice of driving between two lanes of cars).
I suspect that these motorists block the lanes out of frustration that the biker will be having his second cup of coffee before they get home and I can understand that. What I cannot understand is why, despite the Arrive Alive and other similar campaigns as well as the appeals to motorists to be on the lookout for pedestrians, so many pedestrians are still involved in accidents on the highway.
What are they doing there? They have no business walking on it - it is as simple as that. I was a witness eight weeks ago when a pedestrian was killed, at night, trying to cross the highway at the N14/N1 split - how that person could have thought that he had the dexterity to cross five lanes of highway traffic is beyond me.
I feel sorry for the poor guy who ran him over - he will live with the trauma of that incident for the rest of his life. I was also nearly involved in an accident with a pedestrian close to Randfontein one night where a dark-clad pedestrian ran from amongst the bushes at the side of the road and crossed right in front of me.
Close call
I have no idea how I avoided hitting him and, truth be told, had I been a bit braver and a little bit more bold, I would have gotten out of my car, chased him down and given him a few "klaps" just to see if there were a remote change that the two remaining, but non-functioning brain cells, could miraculously be restored to a thinking state.
I also see similar crossings on the N14 highway near Krugersdorp and when travelling on the N4 between Pretoria / Rustenburg road. It amazes me that these idiots run across the road, the partition in between and across the opposite lanes, without looking left or right. On the N4, this occurs despite a several pedestrian bridges which are mostly unused.
Are they too lazy to walk the short distance or are they hooked on the adrenalin, much like the train-surfers? Maybe the Arrive Alive and the other campaigns have merit but I miss one campaign - Think Car - with the emphasis on pedestrians staying off roads that they have no reason to be on, educating them to cross streets at places designed for this (like pedestrian bridges, street corners and pedestrian crossings), explaining that a car moves much quicker than any human, is harder than flesh and that wearing dark clothes increases the risk of being run over.
That is does not hurt to look left, right and left again if need be. That waiting a few seconds is much better than arriving at your destination as a statistic and a newspaper article. And maybe we need more campaigns that emphasise that safety is something that every person should take responsibility for whether they drive a car, motorbike and bicycle or are a pedestrian.
Campaigns that are designed to change attitudes about adhering to the laws of the road and country, to teach respect for other road users (and people in general) and maybe then, just maybe, the carnage on our roads will stop.
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Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyNews24 have been independently written by members of News24's community. The views of users published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24. News24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.