bubblies.
I don’t know what it is with me and road trauma these days, but I keep having experience after experience with really bad drivers killing or nearly killing people around them. First it was the old man who died on the road shortly after getting hit by the red sports car. Then a few days later, after work, I passed a body on the road. Clearly a dead one. Apparently an accident occurred right next to the woman, who was standing on the side of the road. She got hit and died. She was 84.
Then Monday night I had dinner at a delicious new fish and chips restaurant in Kalk Bay. While we were there, we noticed 3 ladies dancing around in a drunken stupor. As we drove home, we realized we were behind these same ladies driving themselves over the mountain. The car swerved left to right. They turned their blinker on to the left, then to the right, then off again. They slowed down to 20 kilometers, then sped up and drove off quickly. As we followed them over each hill, they would slowly swerve to the right (here, that means they were driving on the wrong side of the road). At one point, a car came over the hill and had to swerve almost off the mountain in an attempt to get out of the way of this car.
We were flashing our lights at them, hooting the horn and screaming out the window. We did everything we could in an attempt to get these crazy people to pull off the road. For at least 8 miles, we followed them. Each of our emotions were going in all different directions: angry, worried, angry, scared, angry again ☺ I was SO angry at these women. Each of us also had a different theory for how we could get them to pull over. My one friend stood almost fully out of the passenger window screaming at them. My other friend said we should call the police—which we did. They said “there is nothing we can do”. (And that one sentence summarizes every conversation or observation I’ve had with the Muizenberg police.) I kept saying we should whip around in front of them and stop so they would have to stop too (everyone thought that was a very dumb idea).
Eventually they pulled over, but it took a while. All three women were very drunk, and didn’t seem to think they were doing anything wrong. They explained it was “a celebration of 3 generations all together”—meaning we had a daughter, mother, and GRANDmother all out getting drunk together and driving around town.
After what was way too long of a conversation, they agreed that my friends and I should drive them home. So we organized a plan to drive them to Green Point, which is like a good 30-minute drive from where we were currently standing.
I was SO disturbed by this whole scene. I know drunk driving is wrong, and I have known that for a long time. But actually seeing it and having NO control over the situation made me feel absolutely crazy. At any moment I thought they were going to kill someone and I was going to have to watch it happen. I couldn’t shake it from my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, I just saw their stupid car swerving into oncoming cars. I kept feeling that helpless feeling rise up in me.
I don’t know why this rather “normal” thing upset me so. But it did, and I wanted to share it.
Then Monday night I had dinner at a delicious new fish and chips restaurant in Kalk Bay. While we were there, we noticed 3 ladies dancing around in a drunken stupor. As we drove home, we realized we were behind these same ladies driving themselves over the mountain. The car swerved left to right. They turned their blinker on to the left, then to the right, then off again. They slowed down to 20 kilometers, then sped up and drove off quickly. As we followed them over each hill, they would slowly swerve to the right (here, that means they were driving on the wrong side of the road). At one point, a car came over the hill and had to swerve almost off the mountain in an attempt to get out of the way of this car.
We were flashing our lights at them, hooting the horn and screaming out the window. We did everything we could in an attempt to get these crazy people to pull off the road. For at least 8 miles, we followed them. Each of our emotions were going in all different directions: angry, worried, angry, scared, angry again ☺ I was SO angry at these women. Each of us also had a different theory for how we could get them to pull over. My one friend stood almost fully out of the passenger window screaming at them. My other friend said we should call the police—which we did. They said “there is nothing we can do”. (And that one sentence summarizes every conversation or observation I’ve had with the Muizenberg police.) I kept saying we should whip around in front of them and stop so they would have to stop too (everyone thought that was a very dumb idea).
Eventually they pulled over, but it took a while. All three women were very drunk, and didn’t seem to think they were doing anything wrong. They explained it was “a celebration of 3 generations all together”—meaning we had a daughter, mother, and GRANDmother all out getting drunk together and driving around town.
After what was way too long of a conversation, they agreed that my friends and I should drive them home. So we organized a plan to drive them to Green Point, which is like a good 30-minute drive from where we were currently standing.
I was SO disturbed by this whole scene. I know drunk driving is wrong, and I have known that for a long time. But actually seeing it and having NO control over the situation made me feel absolutely crazy. At any moment I thought they were going to kill someone and I was going to have to watch it happen. I couldn’t shake it from my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, I just saw their stupid car swerving into oncoming cars. I kept feeling that helpless feeling rise up in me.
I don’t know why this rather “normal” thing upset me so. But it did, and I wanted to share it.
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