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

[RocknRolla]

....and what about cannabis use? Seems to be an acceptable practice these days to get high before and even while driving.

 

 

[Danger Dassie]

22 hours ago, NotSoBigBen said:

Coming back to this topic I sincerely hope the necessary evidence needed for a drink driving offence has been collected ... I mean according to reports all 5 occupants of the Polo were taken to hospital, surely a blood sample could have been taken at the same time?

Let's see how the investigation/prosecution goes 

Something to observe as well.
Neither Gauteng Cycling nor Cycling SA have said fkall. To me, that’s a disgrace and the leadership need to step up. At minimum, there should be a statement. But there’s nothing, so to me the message there’s no commitment, and absolutely no sense of lobbying. We’re on our own.

[Iwan Kemp]

21 hours ago, ChrisF said:

 

Wonder what the stats say ?

 

Accidents plotted from 0 to 24.00 hour each day .... any particular high spots ?

 

Similar for accidents with severe injuries and/or loss of life ?

 

Third graph .... levels of alcohol measured per time of day at accident scenes .... non-tests to be removed to ensure a better representation.

 

 

IF .... IF traffic law enforcement is about SAFETY .... heck, then you KNOW what time of the day to apply your testing and roadblocks, etc ....  just dumbluck that the revenue from fines will be "optimal", until new habbits patterns are enforced

 

 

Really not rocket science .... least amount research and planning .... then targetted enforcement.

 

 

And such an approach CAN be "blind" ... the search is for bad spots, bad times .... bad vehicles can be the very last data, even better if withheld.

 

 

2023 I came from MTB race ... my bike inside Ertiga, aka Uber look alike .... coming through Wellington I approached roadblock ... most waived through, but my Uber looking wagon gets pulled over ... lisence ready, windy open .... officer gets to my window and looks in ..... start smiling ....

 

Sorry sir, we thought you were a taxi ..... NOBODY likes being targetted !!

 

 

Real targetted toadblocks needs more neutral and factual base .....

I worked in the transport industry. Following a detailed analysis of all accidents, they rolled out a rule that all trucks had to park between 22:00 and 23:00 and not drive again before 4 am. Long-distance drivers (trucks, buses, whatevz), who drove through the night or for a very long time, are most likely to crash the hour or so before sunrise. 

[betaboy]

CSA … very quiet, we need leadership during these times, but hey, a lovely weekend coming up for issuing one day licenses to fill up the jar! In the grand scheme of things I’d love to see the “cooked books” actually! Yeah show us cyclist some transparency. I dare you.

[Bro Derek]

On 2/3/2026 at 3:29 PM, Shebeen said:

 

Ja, I like to end a ride/run with a carbohydrate recovery drink. I can't have nice things now?* 

This is probably the wrong thread to have a 0.05 vs 0.00 debate, as the driver of this vehicle was most likely well above both, but here we are so here goes with a hopefully useful analogy.

South Africa had a huge problem with perlemoen poaching. It was blindingly obvious that the stocks were being decimated by syndicates that were multilayered from the actual divers all the way to shipping/export. Eventually in 2008 they went thermonuclear and banned all recreational collecting, with only the highly controlled commercial quotas allowed. This zero tolerance approach meant it would be easy to catch offenders and the whole cycle would be stopped.

18 years of "zero tolerance" later it has only got worse. The syndicates are still wreaking havoc, and the law abiding recreational guys who were a fraction of the total catch have been shut out.

 

if we're only catching a fraction of the +0,15 guys now, how will they get stopped with the masses of 0-0,05 guys also being processed.

how will this be different?

 

 

*If you're of the view that drivers should not have had a drink in the 6 hours before they drive then we will never agree on this one.

So you're comparing syndicates of poachers to drunk drivers?

So even you, who is so vehemently for booze, is admitting it is criminal?

I think we have the answer right there!

[RobynE 🚵‍♀️]

Spend some time not drinking and then see how ingrained, entrenched and acceptable alcohol consumption is. It’s actively encouraged. 

If every time you arrived somewhere/finished an event there was a tray of mind-and-behaviour-altering pills, would you pop one, two, three without thinking about it? I mean it’d only be one, right? 

People drink because it does things to the brain. No other reason. If it didn’t do anything to the brain we’d all be drinking 0% stuff. Alcohol makes us less/more talkative, less/more animated, it (without fail) lowers inhibitions. It is a social crutch. Even if the crutch is to support you through your own thoughts, ie drinking alone. 

Condolences to all who lost loved ones at the hands of drunken fools. 

 

 

[Mamil]

From a neuro psychological viewpoint, changes in nervous system functioning from ethanol is present as soon as bloodl levels are greater than 0 and occur regardless of subjective experience that there is no difference. 

 

[Prince Albert Cycles]

On 2/3/2026 at 5:35 PM, ChrisF said:

 

The level is of lesser importance - YES, I am favour of a near zero figure.

 

The real issue is policing it..... especially after accident .... until there are REAL concequences for drink driving there is zero incentive to stop !!  Even then, many will continue until the penalty far outways the alternatives ...

I suspect the majority of Hubbers are too young ( or were not born yet ) to remember the fuel crisis in about 1974 .

The max speed limit on highways was limited to 80 kph and it was fiercely policed ( by a different Government granted) with fines up to confiscating the offending vehicle .

It worked ..we were all @#$& scared to exceed the limit .

That is the core of the current problem .  No one is scared.

 

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, Prince Albert Cycles said:

I suspect the majority of Hubbers are too young ( or were not born yet ) to remember the fuel crisis in about 1974 .

The max speed limit on highways was limited to 80 kph and it was fiercely policed ( by a different Government granted) with fines up to confiscating the offending vehicle .

It worked ..we were all @#$& scared to exceed the limit .

That is the core of the current problem .  No one is scared.

 

Absolutely on the money. No one’s scared of the coppers. Police stations get robbed at gunpoint today!!

[Danger Dassie]

18 hours ago, betaboy said:

CSA … very quiet, we need leadership during these times, but hey, a lovely weekend coming up for issuing one day licenses to fill up the jar! In the grand scheme of things I’d love to see the “cooked books” actually! Yeah show us cyclist some transparency. I dare you.

Reading this article and the subsequent response from Gerrit Pfahl, road director. Only seem to confirm the above. What an asinine string of bureaucratic hyperbole BS! 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/168jzH74Fc/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Edited February 5 by Danger Dassie

[Shebeen]

14 hours ago, Bro Derek said:

So you're comparing syndicates of poachers to drunk drivers?

 

No. It was a metaphor to show how a zero tolerance approach to a problem can have the right intentions but ultimately be let down by being both misguided and the actual practicality of the scenario.

Apologies if that was not blindingly obvious. 

 

14 hours ago, Bro Derek said:

So even you, who is so vehemently for booze, is admitting it is criminal?

I think we have the answer right there!

I take exception to how you characterise my viewpoint here. This is not a binary scenario of alcohol/total ban, But since you seem to follow me through all different threads with an axe to grind no matter the topic I'll wait till you want to actually engage with the argument than playing the man, 

 

[Bro Derek]

7 hours ago, Shebeen said:

No. It was a metaphor to show how a zero tolerance approach to a problem can have the right intentions but ultimately be let down by being both misguided and the actual practicality of the scenario.

Apologies if that was not blindingly obvious. 

 

I take exception to how you characterise my viewpoint here. This is not a binary scenario of alcohol/total ban, But since you seem to follow me through all different threads with an axe to grind no matter the topic I'll wait till you want to actually engage with the argument than playing the man, 

 

I don't follow anyone with any axe to grind and I am not playing the man.

We disagree. 

If you have a few beers and crash one day, or someone else has a few beers and crashes into you one day, I pray to all the various gods that your family aren't injured. It would be a terrible way for you to learn just how tragic it actually is

Drugs and heavy machines don't mix. The end. 

Unfortunately it doesn't even take hundreds of people dying every year on our roads for people to change their attitude and/or culture.

We can straw man about poachers and past failures, the state of policing etc but, it looks as though the Law has been backed and passed and may be in effect sooner than anticipated

Once active, will you actively choose to comply, or will you continue to live outside of the law and actively, willingly break the law?

My hope is that this small change, however unpopular or unenforceable some people think it is, creates the cultural shift towards drinking and driving being 100% unacceptable 

 

[mazambaan]

On 2/5/2026 at 7:11 AM, DieselnDust said:

Absolutely on the money. No one’s scared of the coppers. Police stations get robbed at gunpoint today!!

RIP to the cyclists; terrible.

But I will take a slightly different view and, while I agree, I don't think this is the core of the drunk driving and pedestrian and cycling deaths by motor vehicle. I think it is that ubuntu is a myth and there is little respect for other road users; it is every man for himself, devil take the hindmost. Evidence is the extremes; Mauritius has narrow roads but, when I have ridden there, I did not feel in too much danger (I wouldn't even ride SA roads generally). Anecdotally, Vietnam has hordes of scooters etc but not many accidents, everyone has respect for each other. Harare has very few bicycles and scooters etc; it is just too dangerous; roads and drivers (that was what I was told when I asked).

Draconian policing and political pressure may improve respect on the roads (0% alcohol is just knee jerk IMHO) but the thoughtless lack of respect for other road users could be intrinsic in SA (and other similar countries) society and not easily changed.

[Patchelicious]

I don’t think the deterrent for drunk driving is primarily law enforcement or harsher punishment. It’s societal.

I’ve spent the last eight or so years in Europe and the UK. In that time, the number of people I know who have driven after more than one beer is basically zero. The number of random police stops I’ve seen for drink-driving checks is also basically zero.

Contrast that with South Africa. We have roadblocks everywhere, many of them explicitly targeting drunk drivers. SAPS even publishes weekend stats on how many drunk drivers they catch. And if you hit and kill a cyclist while drunk, you’re almost certainly spending at least a few nights in prison. Anyone here who has even a vague idea of what a South African prison is like knows that one night in Pollsmoor is not a light consequence. It’s a serious deterrent. There were even TV adverts disgustingly implying this at one stage.

Yet people still drink and drive.

That tells you the issue isn’t enforcement or consequences. It’s culture.

In most developed countries, drink-driving is socially unacceptable. Your friends would stop you. Your partner would stop you. You’d be judged hard for even suggesting it. That social pressure does far more than a roadblock ever will.

In South Africa, we don’t have that broadly shared social norm. Cyclists, by and large, sit in the upper economic brackets. The majority of South Africans are impoverished, disconnected from cycling as a concept, and frankly don’t care about cyclists or drink-driving. You can shout for stricter enforcement all you want, but it’s not going to move the needle in a society where the behaviour itself isn’t socially discouraged.

That’s the uncomfortable reality.

[The Ouzo]

2 hours ago, mazambaan said:

RIP to the cyclists; terrible.

But I will take a slightly different view and, while I agree, I don't think this is the core of the drunk driving and pedestrian and cycling deaths by motor vehicle. I think it is that ubuntu is a myth and there is little respect for other road users; it is every man for himself, devil take the hindmost. Evidence is the extremes; Mauritius has narrow roads but, when I have ridden there, I did not feel in too much danger (I wouldn't even ride SA roads generally). Anecdotally, Vietnam has hordes of scooters etc but not many accidents, everyone has respect for each other. Harare has very few bicycles and scooters etc; it is just too dangerous; roads and drivers (that was what I was told when I asked).

Draconian policing and political pressure may improve respect on the roads (0% alcohol is just knee jerk IMHO) but the thoughtless lack of respect for other road users could be intrinsic in SA (and other similar countries) society and not easily changed.

This is spot on. Zero respect for anyone is the crux of many issues we face in this country. 

[The Ouzo]

On the subject of a few pints after sport. 
played my first ever padel game the other day ( I’m ashamed to admit it). 
before the game was even up, a waiter from the club house approached and was pushing beers and tequilas. Encouraging us with specials. 
the group I was with, even though they are big drinkers, were fortunately not enticed, but it did not stop the waiter for continuing to try. 
granted his job is to push the stuff and he’ll get a bigger tip, but that it was socially acceptable to do so is a problem.