On a two-way road, what is your advice if you see an oncoming vehicle using your side of the road to overtake a queue of traffic? Several readers
Safety first. Slow down. Check your options for getting off the road. Focus on the situation and nothing else. Deal with the situation, and nothing else.
In this instance, and in many other traffic situations, they key is to be “ready” (you have thought about this possibility in advance) and to focus on the only thing that matters right here, right now - to avoid an accident. That is the sole objective.
Drill that thought process into your psyche. If the overtake is causing an emergency situation, the issue is not just you and “the idiot”; everybody in the area, in both directions, both on and off the road, is in danger. Your job is to help keep them all safe.
You are aware that when there is an approaching stream that one of more vehicles might emerge from it onto your side of the road, suddenly and at any time, perhaps to take a look, perhaps to risk an unsafe overtake.
In Kenya there is so much slow and congested traffic on major highways, and such a high proportion of tall trucks obstructing everyone’s view, that such moves are not just possible – they are highly likely and frequent. The only thing that should surprise you is when they don’t happen!
To compound that problem, our roads and their reserves are rarely fence-protected no-go areas and are more like busy a marketplace than an orderly motorway.
Drivers in Kenya are probably above-average aware of the road reserve – how sharp is the tarmac lip, is the verge hard and level or full of rocks and shrubs, sheep and goats, hawkers and kiosks, half-parked matatus, boda-bodas and bicycles …or is it a huge adjacent ditch?
This general condition is in your knowledge all the time (unless you are stoned or talking/texting on a mobile phone or have side-windows that are so dark you can’t see through them clearly enough).
That’s why I suggested you “double “check your likely escape route – not look at your surroundings in that context for the “first” time.
There is a great temptation to start by resenting the other driver’s action. Don’t. Not even for a split second. Your brain has more important things to do.
Fortunately, though rash, rude and sometimes dangerous overtaking is common, in most cases it does not lead to a life-or-death emergency or an accident.
Awareness, consideration and early preventive action are usually enough to turn “alarming” into simply “annoying”.
Rather than “here comes a nutter” or “who does that jerk think he is?” (which are time-consuming mental distractions), decide in advance the less likely explanation of “oops, this chap has made a mistake” and focus on the more useful reaction of “how can I help”.
At a distance that is not immediately critical, there’s also a temptation not to give way and to force the culprit to take the evasive action to “teach the twit a lesson”.
Again, in advance, bear in mind that those who would try to overtake in that place at that moment are probably not good learners, and are more likely to curse you than to review their own behaviour.
