Driver awareness for Easter weekend

By Stuart Johnston

Easter weekend is a great time to get away from the city, and enjoy a four-day break, or more if you can organise a few days’ leave to supplement the public holidays.

But Easter is also a time when the roads to and from major holiday destinations are chock-a-block with traffic, and road accident tolls climb to ever-increasing heights. Our annual road-death rate has been around the 14 000 level for the past few years, a statistic that makes it 10 times more likely to die in a road accident than you would in Australia.

Short of spending Easter at home, what can you do to make our roads safer?

1. Never drink and drive. Even a single beer or glass of wine impairs your judgement and concentration levels. Decide on a designated driver for your journey, who should remain alcohol-free for the duration of the trip.

2. Keep left, pass right. One of the most hazardous aspects of driving on freeways in South Africa is that drivers don’t respect the keep-left, pass-right rule. If you are driving slower than the national speed limit, keep in the slow lane. Once you have overtaken in the right lane, return as soon as possible to the slow or slowest lane, depending on your cruising speed.

3. Maintain following distances. At 120 km/h your car can travel the distance of a soccer or rugby field in a matter of seconds. Keep a gap of between three to five car lengths to the car ahead of you at all times.

4. Plan your overtaking manoeuvres on single carriage roads. It is no good to drive as close up behind a car as possible to attempt an overtaking manoeuvre. Drop back to between six car lengths behind the vehicle, to give you a clearer view of the road ahead. Then accelerate hard once you have made the decision to pass. Your greater speed as you pass the car will reduce your exposure time in the oncoming lane.

5. Indicate your intentions at all time. And if you see a big build-up of slow-moving or stationary traffic ahead, put on your hazard lights to warn cars behind you that you are braking hard. Again, a good following distance enables you to do this safely.

6. On country roads and in the city, scan the road ahead and the surrounding terrain for the possibility of intersections, even minor ones like farm roads that may not be marked. Slow down when you see these potentially hazardous junctions, even if it appears there is no traffic likely to pull into your path.

7. In the city, before pulling away from a traffic light that has turned green, scan the intersecting road left and right to make sure no-one is trying to “beat” the red light. It is no good claiming after an accident that it wasn’t your fault. Even if you are in the right, caution and a preventative attitude is far better than a life-changing accident.

8. Practise defensive driving, which means placing your car on the road in a position where you always have options, should the unforeseen occur. In a city street that is lined with trees or buildings close to the perimeter on the road, be aware that this can obscure traffic lights or stop signs at junctions. Also, in these conditions, place your car as close to the centre-line as possible, while still remaining on your side of the road. This will give a person attempting to turn into the road you are on more chance to see you, than if you were tucked up tight against the curb.

9. Be aware that in South Africa, and in Gauteng particularly, traffic lights may be out of order. If you notice this, put on your hazard lights immediately to warn cars behind you that you are going to stop. The rule at a junction with lights out of order is one car to go in each direction. Be aware that cars turning across the traffic need to be given this respect too. And also remember, that other drivers may not have any respect for your courtesy at all!

Make sure that your car is in good condition, as far as lights, indicators, tyres, brakes and windscreen wipers are concerned. Anything that makes your car safer benefits everyone out there on our potentially lethal road syste