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It's December time. Holidays are in full swing and it's the silly season too. Every year we hear about our festive season death toll and the festive road safety campaigns that come with it. An experience last night however made me question just how serious our police force is about festive season road safety.
I was driving quietly along the N2 last night near isipingo when a guy suddenly side swiped me and took out my drivers side mirror. I'm lucky I braked because he then almost entered my lane too. If I hadn't braked I could very possibly have been one of the festive seasons first victims.
My mirror taken out I expected this person to switch on their hazards and pull over so we could exchange details. Instead they put foot. As in drive away so fast that I need to do in the 170 to 180 range to catch up with them simply to get their registration.
When I catch up with them their driving is very erratic. Swerving all over the road, braking and speeding up for no reason, driving on the breakdown lane .... things that gave me the reasonable assumption that this person was drunk.
Being a responsible citizen I decide to call the police coz he's almost caused a few more accidents. My mirror isn't as important as the lives that could be lost if this guy isn't stopped. Approaching the cement factory I give Durban Metro Police a call. I give them all the details and I very clearly tell them that this guy is possibly drunk and I will follow him for the next 10 to 15 minutes. The channel operator must call me back and I'll tell them exactly where this car is so he can be stopped.
Going past spaghetti junction nobody has called me yet so I call metro police back because his driving is getting worse and worse. When I finally get to speak to the channel operator it becomes clear to me that I'm going to get no help from metro police. According to the person I spoke to the vehicle has been circulated on the radio but no vehicle has been assigned to it. Her manner of speaking made it quite clear to me that no vehicle was going to be assigned to it and I was going to get zero help from them.
I then called 10111. By this point we were in the vicinity of nandi drive. I gave the call taker all the same details about this person failing to stop at the accident scene, their possibly drunk driving and almost causing more accidents. I clearly told the call taker to get the channel operator to call me back as I will follow this vehicle so that somebody can stop it.
From nandi drive I follow it all the way to Sibaya Casino. Up until this person turns into Sibaya Casino their driving is still highly erratic.
This entire thing took roughly 25 minutes and spanned a distance of roughly 50 km or so. It is now more than 10 hours later and I'm still waiting for both police services to call me back so I can tell them where the vehicle is so it can be pulled over and the driver tested for drunk driving.
25 minutes. 50 km. 2 police services. No response from either of them. Who do we then blame for the carnage on our roads this festive season?
