Be glad you missed this bus

On my way back to Pretoria late the other night as I drove through the N1/N14 split coming up to John Vorster the night suddenly turned into an array of flashing lights reminding me of an 80’s disco. Unfortunately this was no fun affair as it was in fact the flashing lights of emergency vehicles lighting up the night.

As I approached the scene I realized it was one of those long distance Gauteng to Polokwane (Pietersburg) public busses that malfunctioned in a rather spectacular way. The bus was lying on its belly across all three lanes of the N1. The luggage (probably including live chickens) stacked on the roof of the kamikaze bus was now scattered all over the tar surface. Fortunately for the passengers of the bus, the vehicle didn’t overturn after its back wheels just mysteriously disembarked from the chassis. Unfortunately the occupants of a Chrysler Crossfire were not as lucky, because they must have ended up underneath a truck as the accident occurred. The cabin of the Crossfire was completely flattened.

I don’t get angry that easily but this made me furious, considering that I’m fined for every time I dare to drive over the speed limit but un-roadworthy vehicles like this, carrying innocent desperate civilians, are not kept from the road as they post a threat to all of us. I think it’s time that our overweight Metro Police leave their coffee and doughnuts and get off their fat asses behind the speeding cameras and start attending to real threats like this . . . . and while their up, start regulating traffic in peak hour damn-it!