Heroes and villains on the road
YOUmagazineSA Truckers on our roads have a worthy and responsible role. Sadly many motorists treat them with contempt, for example overtaking them irresponsibly when they’re negotiating a steep hill fully laden.
The average driver of a small car sees the driver of a truck as invincible. With all that metal and power, how can he come to grief? Only too easily. A longdistance trucker friend of my brother was driving a heavily laden vehicle and breasting a steep rise on a bend. An impatient sedan driver was determined to overtake him and ignored the truck driver’s emphatic warning of oncoming traffic.
The imminent collision would have caused certain death to that small guy in a big hurry, so the humane trucker promptly veered off the road and went straight down a steep embankment. His brave, selfless act cost him his life while the small guy got off unscathed.
Holiday times are nightmares for truckers. They aren’t pleasure-bound. It’s work as usual on the crowded highways as they head for their destinations youmagazinesa transporting our much-needed consumer goods. Why not give them a little consideration? TRUCKER TANNIE, BOTHASIG
SYouMagazine
Taxi drivers continue to be the bad guys on our roads, especially during the holidays.
They focus on their financial target and completely ignore passengers’ safety and that of other road users.
Some of them don’t have a valid professional driving permit that allows them to transport passengers. Others transport commuters with unroadworthy vehicles.
They switch and cut lanes as they please. In slow-moving traffic they overtake on barrier lanes and drive in the emergency lane. They obey the rules of the road only when they know there are traffic cops ahead.
If taxi drivers want the traffic cops to give them a break they must start putting the safety of other road users first. It won’t hurt to obey the rules of the road. MASHOTO TSIRI, EMAIL youmagazinesa youmagazinetv This festive season I have two wishes. Firstly, that my daughter-in-law would quit her hatred for me. We were both in the wrong and I’ve apologised and pleaded but two years down the line she still forbids me to see my son or two perfect grandkids. Secondly, I wish she’d do as her faith teaches and forgive. I have cancer but with a good prognosis. I miss them. SAD GRAN, SMS I was in a Cape Town hospital and also experienced a loud radio on the ward (YOU Say, 15 December). The staff had a threatening attitude. It was shocking. EX-PATIENT, SMS How can DStv sink so low as to finish the series Friends with a grand finale for the second time then the very next night they start rerunning the entire series from episode 1? This is surely scraping the bottom of the basement floor where the barrels are kept. Enough of the reruns of the reruns. BRIAN, DURBAN