Only in Africa....

[April20]

I took this picture a couple weeks back and just downloaded it. Only in Africa would I see this. I've never been any place where the normal traffic reports includes at least three pedestrians "knocked down".

 

[Miss Sparkly]

Sad and hilarious at the same time

 

[tyty333]

Sad and hilarious at the same time

+1

Here in the US its "Dont drink and drive". I guess in Africa its "Dont drink and walk."

 

[April20]

Pedestrian deaths by car are insanely high here. Many don't drive and have never driven. They simply don't have the ability to judge how fast a car is going and if they have time to cross the road safely. Add to that, many of them are playing frogger on the freeway and at night, they are often trashed. Friends were telling me tonight that on Easter weekend last year, they had 1500 traffic fatalities. Of the 1500, 1200 were pedestrians hit by cars. It is a HUGE problem here.

I found the label funny and completely sad all in one breath. Also, completely out of place for an American reading it used to seeing not to drink and drive or drink while pregnant.

 

[luv2sparkle]

That is so sad and strange, such an amazing cultural difference. Hard to imagine that many pedestrian deaths.

 

[NTave]

We visited South Africa a few weeks ago and we ended up driving a few hours our first night after landing late at night. The droves of men out at 2am on the side of the road on a Friday night literally scared me...I was not prepared for it after a 18 hour flight, driving on the opposite side of the road, and to boot, cows, goats AND people all over the road. I'm putting that in the memory bank as worst drive ever.

 

[April20]

We visited South Africa a few weeks ago and we ended up driving a few hours our first night after landing late at night. The droves of men out at 2am on the side of the road on a Friday night literally scared me...I was not prepared for it after a 18 hour flight, driving on the opposite side of the road, and to boot, cows, goats AND people all over the road. I'm putting that in the memory bank as worst drive ever.

It's insane here, huh? I've seen goats, cows, children, men, women, everything. It freaks me out to see them dashing across the freeway at night WEARING DARK CLOTHES!

I did a Sporcle trivia game a few months back on the countries with the highest vehicular deaths per capita. It was like top 50 or something. Of the top 50, all but three were African countries. The country with the highest vehicular deaths is Eritrea. South Africa was #27.

One reason vehicular deaths are so stupidly high here is because they will load a small truck with three people in the cab and 10-15 people riding in the back bed when really the truck only holds 2 people safely. When a bad accident happens, you don't just lose a couple people, you lose 20.