2 cyclists from Lenasia knocked down by a drunk driver on R82 Walkerville. Both cyclists declared dead.

[Ispeed_V]

Not a good weekend for cyclists. This incident coupled with an incident at Emmarentia where a mountain biker apparently misjudged a jump and landed badly, breaking his/her neck. 

3 fatalities in one weekend. My sincere condolences to their families and friends.

[Barry]

35 minutes ago, Ispeed_V said:

Not a good weekend for cyclists. This incident coupled with an incident at Emmarentia where a mountain biker apparently misjudged a jump and landed badly, breaking his/her neck. 

3 fatalities in one weekend. My sincere condolences to their families and friends.

A sad weekend for cycling i think as previously mentioned the number is at 5 fatalities for the weekend in Gauteng.

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, The Ouzo said:

Have to agree with you on the restrictions. 
reading comments on X about alcohol consumption and driving, it’s as if there is something wrong with you if you DONT drive drunk. 
 

but, again, it boils down to the will to do anything about it by the law enforcement. We have the laws, but they are simply not enforced. 

Alcohol and fuel are two big tax income streams for the government. Why would any government cut off a revenue stream. It’s only going to get worse

[E Roller]

Was hit by a car 3 Dec 2024. Luckily I woke up a day later. Perfect docket prepared by a legal friend that was also a witness, and it still took them a year to charge the driver, with lots of nudging and visits to the prosecutor.

Court day on Friday 6 Feb, my leg gets amputated Friday 13 Feb. I am lucky to be alive I guess.

[Prince Albert Cycles]

36 minutes ago, E Roller said:

Was hit by a car 3 Dec 2024. Luckily I woke up a day later. Perfect docket prepared by a legal friend that was also a witness, and it still took them a year to charge the driver, with lots of nudging and visits to the prosecutor.

Court day on Friday 6 Feb, my leg gets amputated Friday 13 Feb. I am lucky to be alive I guess.

Speechless.

sorry about your trauma and leg 

[capediver]

2 hours ago, E Roller said:

Was hit by a car 3 Dec 2024. Luckily I woke up a day later. Perfect docket prepared by a legal friend that was also a witness, and it still took them a year to charge the driver, with lots of nudging and visits to the prosecutor.

Court day on Friday 6 Feb, my leg gets amputated Friday 13 Feb. I am lucky to be alive I guess.

No words!  except wtf....sorry about your situation!!

[Robbie Stewart]

Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy has tabled a motion the reduce the legal blood alcohol limit from 0.05 mg to zero. 

Reports I've read about it so far seems that parliament seems set on approving it and writing it in to law before Easter. 

The main issue won't be the fact that the limit is now zero, but how it gets policed.

[Prince Albert Cycles]

6 minutes ago, Robbie Stewart said:

Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy has tabled a motion the reduce the legal blood alcohol limit from 0.05 mg to zero. 

Reports I've read about it so far seems that parliament seems set on approving it and writing it in to law before Easter. 

The main issue won't be the fact that the limit is now zero, but how it gets policed.

Exactly

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, Robbie Stewart said:

Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy has tabled a motion the reduce the legal blood alcohol limit from 0.05 mg to zero. 

Reports I've read about it so far seems that parliament seems set on approving it and writing it in to law before Easter. 

The main issue won't be the fact that the limit is now zero, but how it gets policed.

Government needs money so expect heavy fines in excess of R5k. Easy targets are the middle class. Taxi drivers will

always be a bigger unpoliced problem 

[NC_lurker]

1 hour ago, Robbie Stewart said:

The main issue won't be the fact that the limit is now zero, but how it gets policed.

Exactly! We don't need more laws, or stricter regulations, we just need enforcement of the existing laws!

Oh, that and perhaps some accountability for our own actions by all motorists...we aren't children, we shouldn't need someone else to have to tell us it's wrong to drive drunk, speed recklessly, drive through red lights, have zero respect for other road users etc

[Robbie Stewart]

8 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Government needs money so expect heavy fines in excess of R5k. Easy targets are the middle class. Taxi drivers will

always be a bigger unpoliced problem 

So in Cape Town I've seen, and been stopped at, blood alcohol checks on Sunday afternoon on main roads leading to the suburban areas. Clearly a targeted scenario to measure blood alcohol levels of the people who have been out for lunch.

Now, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, for definitely no one must drive while intoxicated. But it does come off as more of a drive to increase easy income and less one of actual policing.

I agree this will be policed very subjectively. 

[Shebeen]

2 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy has tabled a motion the reduce the legal blood alcohol limit from 0.05 mg to zero. 

Reports I've read about it so far seems that parliament seems set on approving it and writing it in to law before Easter. 

The main issue won't be the fact that the limit is now zero, but how it gets policed.

Drink driving has never been the social no no in this country like others, some would say this is changing. Brief history - limit was 0,15g/ 100ml and was reduced to 0,08 in the 80s (unconfirmed)

In 1996, this was taken down to 0,05 inline with many other countries.

Have things improved? In many forms of society (upper LSMs), uber and ride sharing has really enabled people to go bananas and get home safely, affordably and conveniently. The other positive is that younger adults don't seem to drink as much as previous generations either.

Bringing it down to 0 is probably going to be a waste of time, I already here people will get prescription medicine to get around this. The real issue (IMHO) is not the people between 0 and 0.05 - it's those who are way above that and we already have the laws to get them off the roads. Having a zero tolerance approach will only lump the bad eggs into the general population and dilute them, it could even take the consequences of driving hammerfaced even lower.

Like this cowboy at 10 times over the legal limit this festive season

 

 

 

Also, not really part of this conversation but drunk rural pedestrians account for a HUGE proportion of annual road deaths. My solution here would be for Black label to have beanies with reflective strips as some promotion.

 

24 minutes ago, Robbie Stewart said:

So in Cape Town I've seen, and been stopped at, blood alcohol checks on Sunday afternoon on main roads leading to the suburban areas. Clearly a targeted scenario to measure blood alcohol levels of the people who have been out for lunch.

Now, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, for definitely no one must drive while intoxicated. But it does come off as more of a drive to increase easy income and less one of actual policing.

I agree this will be policed very subjectively. 

exactly, I often see this on main road Fish hoek, targetting grannies who've had a G&T at the Galley. do it at 5am on payday saturday - with a blood test lab on site on you will get lots of customers who are playing russian roulette.

 

 

 

[DieselnDust]

an alcohol limit of 0g/100ml blood is nearly impossible to police as alcohol can remain in trace amounts in the blood for quite a long time. A limit of 0.02g/100ml is applied to drivers holding a PDP which should be applicable to taxis, e-hail, bus and truck drivers as well as chauffeurs. This is effectively "0" tolerance as there is a precision associated with the test kit of around 0.01mg/ml at a concentration of 50,0mg/ml

Edited February 3 by DieselnDust

[Robbie Stewart]

31 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

This is effectively "0" tolerance as there is a precision associated with the test kit of around 0.01mg/ml at a concentration of 50,0mg/ml

So now the onus would be on the accused to prove that the result of the test was due to test kit precision variances. In the mean time, you have a cloud over your head, and also a weekend in police custody to deal with.

[Robbie Stewart]

And now I'm going to chuck the cat among the pigeons. Pretty much every cycling event I have participated in has a beer garden for the finishers. How often does it happen that you reach the finish, and end up swilling a couple, or more, of the on-tap of choice, before making your way to the car for the drive home?

This is more of a cultural change than we are likely willing to admit.

[droo]

3 hours ago, Robbie Stewart said:

So in Cape Town I've seen, and been stopped at, blood alcohol checks on Sunday afternoon on main roads leading to the suburban areas. Clearly a targeted scenario to measure blood alcohol levels of the people who have been out for lunch.

Now, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, for definitely no one must drive while intoxicated. But it does come off as more of a drive to increase easy income and less one of actual policing.

I agree this will be policed very subjectively. 

Most traffic law enforcement in SA is revenue- and convenience-driven. Lots of speed traps, near zero enforcement of moving violations.

Much easier to sit under a tree with a radar gun to catch someone going 10km/h over the limit than to stop someone from doing a U turn across traffic over a solid line or driving like a muppet.

Like Shebeen said, 2am and 5am roadblocks would do a much better job of catching drunk drivers than what they're doing (and shouting about loudly from the rooftops) now.