Being safe on the road
Pope Benedict reportedly was amused at being informed that a German citizen had reported him to the police for not wearing a seat belt while riding in the popemobile.
Whatever the motives behind the complaint—the man claims to have the Holy Father’s safety at heart—it serves as an opportune reminder for road safety at a time when motorists are at a greater risk of being involved in an accident than at other times of the year.
This is particularly true in South Africa, with its long roads carrying increased numbers of vehicles during the holiday season, many of them unroadworthy and subject to inconsistent enforcement of the law.
Adding to the dangers faced by road users, South Africans are yet to arrive at a point when driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is an absolute taboo.
Road fatality statistics suggest that South Africans are particularly inept in traffic. Our drivers are given to irresponsible behaviour, and our pedestrians tend to be a danger to themselves and others.
In traffic, road users must depend on one another for their safety. Motorists, cyclists and pedestrians share a co-responsibility to keep themselves and each other safe. In that way, participation in traffic places upon every road user a moral and ethical obligation.
Cardinal Renato Martino, when he was president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerants, put it bluntly: “Cars tend to bring out the primitive side of human beings.”
He noted that for some drivers, cars are not just modes of transport. “The pleasure of driving becomes a way of enjoying the freedom and independence that normally we do not have. The free availability of speed, being able to accelerate at will, setting out to conquer time and space, overtaking, and almost subjugating other drivers’ turn into sources of satisfaction that derive from domination.”
This is supplemented by feelings of aggression caused by inconsiderate, dangerous and incompetent drivers, and urban congestion. It is fair to say that South African roads are not always places of pleasure.
In 2007, under the guidance of Cardinal Martino, the Vatican issued a 36-page document entitled “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road”. The guidance offered in that document, which included a Ten Commandments for Drivers, remains pertinent today.
The document counselled against driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and rightly warned that driving while fatigued is a major cause of road fatalities—important advice indeed for drivers in a country with long roads.
It emphasised the importance of cars being in a roadworthy condition (and the Vatican might have added a clause on the perils of overloading).
On driving conduct, the Vatican said: “Unbalanced behaviour includes impoliteness, rude gestures, cursing, blasphemy, loss of sense of responsibility, or deliberate infringement of the highway code.”
It provided the model of the desirable motorist: “Good drivers courteously give way to pedestrians, are not offended when overtaken, allow someone who wishes to drive faster to pass, and do not seek revenge.”
The Vatican is right to petition for a modification of behaviour, but it is necessary that such appeals are supported by an enforcement of traffic law that places a priority on dangerous driving.
A breakdown in discipline persists on South African roads as motorists claim for themselves the same levels of impunity they see in the anarchic conduct of taxi drivers.
This culture of impunity must be resolutely challenged, through education and by increasing the visibility of traffic officers on the road.
Motor vehicles are potentially lethal instruments, and all we do while in control of them should be based on the commandment, “You shall not kill”.
- The Look of Christ - May 24, 2022
- Putting Down a Sleeping Toddler at Communion? - March 30, 2022
- To See Our Good News - March 23, 2022
