INDICATE FOR LIFE

There’s an old expression – ‘never judge a book by its cover’. And since much of the impression made by the cover of a book is achieved by its title, the expression is warning the reader not to be guided on the quality of a book, containing perhaps 45 000 words, by a title which might have only five words. Yet, in this day and age, the impression made by the title of a book is considered a crucial determinant of the spontaneous appeal of it. The title of a book can pop up anywhere in the social and other media of today. And a cool title definitely catches the eye.

Designed

With a similar motivation, this article attracts attention through the strange title: ‘Indicate for Life’. Those three words are designed to get the reader thinking about a vital piece of necessary human behaviour on our roads. It means – when you are driving along a road that lacks a pavement and slowing down to cautiously overtake one or more pedestrians on your side of the road, then press your right indicator. That flashing indicator will protect those pedestrians in what is known as a ‘blind spot’ for vehicles that are following you – a space beyond, but quite close to, the front of your vehicle. It is especially focused on the reckless driver who will always want to overtake you hurriedly, then nip sharply in front of you to avoid oncoming traffic.

‘Indicating for Life’ may cause you to save one or more human lives. The measure is also known as ‘preventing the impatient from creating a patient.’ And it takes two to tango. Schools should tell their learners to walk in tiny groups along busy roads. And there should be fines for those on two feet, infected with the Corporate Place to the New Mall pedestrian crossing drift. That is crossing brazenly on red lights and stopping the traffic! And, although I must not encourage the law-abiding driver to communicate displeasure at the non-law-abiding drivers – and even pedestrians - through digital expression, a suitable scowl can never be considered inappropriate. Please remember – just one death on the road is one death too many. That was an appeal to the general public.

Placement

This next one is to the Royal Eswatini Police Service. Please increase the placement of officers in low-visibility positions to catch the drivers who are crossing blatantly on red lights. I feel one 100 per cent certain that if you asked those offending and definitely offensive, drivers– ‘are you planning to kill someone at one or more traffic lights in the coming days and weeks?’ - they will vigorously, even defiantly, deny intending doing so! But if you are crossing a red light, or taking the right-hand route on roundabouts, or exceeding the speed limit wildly in a congested area, you can be depriving people of life. And surely none wants to be doing that?

Now, you’ve just crossed a red light or exceeded a 60kph speed limit by 40 per cent and you are handing over the E60 fine, while nearby, a motorist is being arrested and will pay thousands for being slightly over the blood/alcohol limit would you notice something of an anomaly? All of these offences can, though weren’t necessarily, in the process of endangering human life but the punishments do not seem to be consistent with the crime.

That E60 fine has been there since the Stone Age. Well, to be accurate, a little later (lol). When a Police Bill or regulation change wanted to increase it around 25 years ago a few of our legislators cried, ‘No, our constituents could not afford that!’ Well, one of the objectives of any fine is to build in the can’t-afford-it element to deter drivers from breaking the law.  The capitalist societies of this world, and Eswatini is one - don’t bring in means-testing to create a fair playing field in every situation.

Low-breaker

It isn’t practical, and the rich who generally run a country don’t care too much about the concept of broad equitable application anyway. And everyone pays the same fee for a birth certificate or a passport; same reason. I don’t see the impatient and arrogant law-breaker types sitting down and quietly reading this kind of article. The same in every country, especially the one the shape of a lady’s high boot. It’d be headlines first, then straight to the sports pages.

Way back, my father would force me to read the rest of the paper first. Educational purposes allegedly; but perhaps he’d spotted the impetuosity and swagger in my youthful gaze. (lol).
While most of our road-users drive their vehicle(s) to an impeccable degree of propriety, some may also employ individuals to drive big trucks around the urban and peri-urban roads and lanes. I appeal to those good people to draw from their drivers the very highest driving standards. Perhaps introducing the very strict rule that they should not under any circumstances exceed 60kph.

Every decent law-abiding motorist in our country will confirm the experience of seeing heavy duty vehicles advance on them and force their vehicle into the narrow edges of a narrow highway, especially country lanes. What happened to the incident where such a vehicle some ten years ago drove head-on into a car with the family inside one Sunday afternoon in Pine Valley, Mbabane? The driver and a passenger were allegedly seen disposing of empty beer bottles shortly after this accident in which people died. Please tell me that this serious criminal case came to court in Eswatini. I never saw it.

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