Obeying road rules

Peter Smulik, Rugby

It’s my greatest fear that I too will one day find myself confronted by one of those unscrupulous, undisciplined idiots driving towards me on my side of the road, divided by a double white line from his, such as can be seen in the photo of the crash scene (“R27 horror crash,” Tabletalk, October 4).

For the last decade or so a solid white line seems to no longer have any relevance to drivers, not even when moving over a rise in the road where the traffic from the opposite side cannot be seen.

If two drivers do similar manoeuvres coming from opposite directions, such as overtaking a slower vehicle that’s driving partly in the “yellow line”, and both have just their right wheels over the solid white line they will definitely “kiss” each other into the next world.

That’s how head-on collisions happen, traffic “authorities” need not conduct any lengthy investigations.

Driving across a solid white centre line has become the norm as if these no longer have any meaning, and head-on collisions resulting from such manoeuvres are no accidents, they are fatal crashes waiting to happen.

Horror crashes like this will continue to happen until motorists return to what is taught to them during driver training: a solid white centre line may not be crossed! It’s what the law says and is there for our safety. In Zim they fine you just for turning over a solid white line driving into a driveway or the like.