Poor driving in Lusaka

Dear Editor,

IT seems many drivers in Lusaka know nothing about the Highway Code.

Sometimes you wonder whether some drivers are normal or not or they are just absent minded. This applies to both men and women.

In some cases, mere common sense is needed. May be it is after all true that common sense is not actually common.

For example, I witnessed an accident at the junction of Gardenia and Great East Roads in Chelstone near the Catholic Church. A woman was joining the city bound traffic lanes of the Great East Road from Chelstone. There was only one vehicle, a light truck at high speed cruising towards town from Chongwe in the inside lane of the road.

The puzzling part of it was that this woman joined this same inside lane at a snail’s pace, disregarding the light truck which was in the same lane and at high speed just about 20 metres before the junction.

One wonders why the woman did not join the outside lane which was empty instead of the inside lane as there were no other vehicles on this part of the road at the time.

An accident was inevitable, because the driver of the light truck would have easily overturned if he had tried to swerve to avoid the woman who, to worsen the situation, was joining the lane at a chameleon’s pace.

Obviously, he rammed into her, although with Gods’ grace, there were no fatalities. But there are many similar cases where sometimes you tend to think there must be something wrong with the driver.

I hope RTSA and traffic police with the help of the new traffic cameras, will be able to control the situation, at least to some extent and reduce some avoidable accidents and loss of lives.