A few days ago, I yelled at a man who was doing his job on the road. I felt a bit bad as I was rude to him but there is no excuse when it comes to road safety.

Update : I repeat, I felt bad. No need to say that I did not have to yell at him! At that moment, he was the one responsible for the traffic, even if the planning etc are made in office and with improper control of the traffic at that moment, vehicules going in opposite directions could collide. [End of update]

As you have probably seen, various parts of our road network are currently under works for improving the existing road infrastructure. Added to these, several private companies are installing cables or connecting houses to the waste water network, among others. Most of the time, special arrangements (or deviations) need to made to control the traffic flow. Unfortunately, in lots of cases, you will notice that the private companies put their own men to control the traffic, and sometimes the traffic signs are either useless or innappropriate.

The man I am talking about was standing besides a “Go/Stop” road sign at the other end of the area under road works. With no proper traffic signal at my end, I continued my way along my lane. And guess what? On reaching the end of the area, the man had his road sign, with the “STOP” on my side and the “GO” on the other, instructing the vehicles of the opposite direction to drive in. It was a deadlock situation.

As I stated above, I shouted at the man as vehicles were driving in from both sides onto a single lane. I asked him how could he control the traffic at one end only? In this desperate situation, he nodded his head as he was not aware that there was no one at the other end.

Another example of lack of planning and management could be the fact that road signs are not removed when the road works are completed. For some reason, they might even have temporarily stopped the works and the signs (including speed limitations) will stay untouched for days and even weeks.

I don’t know if these people hold some kind of traffic control certificate but as far as I know, they are not police officers and they probably do not have a good notion of road safety and traffic control. As usual, you will only hear the authorities trying to take action when someone gets killed (either road users or the workers) due to carelessness of these third parties.

Related Posts:

• Danger Zone : Men at work along motorway
• Redefining the 4 lanes of the motorway during peak time
• Scooters électriques, un vrai danger…
• Maurice détient le record mondial du nombre de dos d’ânes
• Beware of people throwing stones along the motorways!

A ce jour, je n’ai heureusement pas entendu parler les accidents impliquant ces véhicules à deux roues. Mais est ce qu’il faut vraiment attendre que quelqu’un trouve la mort pour que les autorités prennent les actions nécessaires?

Pas plus tard qu’hier soir, je suis passé à coté de deux scooters électriques :

• Le premier : Un garçon d’environ 12-15 ans dirigeait le véhicule, accompagné d’une autre fille, du même age.
• Un second scooter les suivait de quelques mètres. On pouvait clairement déduire que c’était très probablement le père et la mère. Et deux autres enfants (environ moins de 5 ans) étaient coincés entre les deux adultes!

Malheureusement, j’ai pas pu les prendre en photo mais je crois bien que beaucoup d’entre vous avez peut être déjà  vu d’autres exemples de ce type.

Des enfants au volant de ces scooters…

Très souvent, des enfants moins de 15-8ans sont au volant de ces mobylettes électriques avec l’autorisation des parents.

Ont-ils une notion du code de la route? Comment peut-on autoriser ces types de véhicules roulant à plusieurs Km/hr à des gosses?

Quelque temps de cela, j’ai cru entendre que les autorités voulaient introduire le port du casque obligatoire pour ces véhicules, mais rien de concret a été réalisé en ce sens. Tout comme les motocyclettes, ces scooters électriques sont des vrais dangers pour les usagers de la route mais je crois bien que nous devrons s’attendre à quelques morts pour que les choses commencent enfin à changé…

Related Posts:

• Un motard de “Angel Bike” impliqué dans un accident
• Stop –> Go
• Do you feel like swearing while driving?
• Danger Zone : Men at work along motorway
• Faut-il mettre tous les camions dans un seul panier?

Trimming the grass, somewhere around Terre Rouge

Did you ever notice those men busy working along the motorway? Yes, the same ones who are paid to trim the grass or even pick up bottles or empty snack packets which some of you throw while driving.

Well, I have been coming across them since a few months now, nearly on a daily basis. Equipped with their string trimmers (aka “l’appareil taille gazon“), they usually work in groups and move along together when they have finished trimming the grass in that area. They also wear appropriate clothing to protect themselves from the stones or other objects flying around while they are working. But there is a big lack of equipment which informs road users about works in progress.

However, I have been wondering what would happen if one of those objects fly towards a vehicle. At such a high speed, a window or even the car’s windscreen can easily blow into pieces, putting everyone in danger : the driver and the passengers. The driver can easily lose control of his vehicle, which can hit the guy and any other vehicles passing by.

Fortunately, there haven’t been such incidents (and accidents) till now and let’s hope that they are provided with the proper equipment to inform drivers to slow down in those areas.

And can you imagine the danger they are exposed to? Unfortunately, they do not really have a choice.

Bon weekend to everyone!

Related Posts:

• Stop –> Go
• Pictures of motorway Verdun-Terre Rouge under construction
• Redefining the 4 lanes of the motorway during peak time
• Do you really reach your destination quicker?
• Scooters électriques, un vrai danger…

A live broadcast of the MBC Dossier program just ended some minutes ago. Overall, it was very nice and informative. Today’s session concerned Road safety. They talked about speed cameras, alcohol test drives, awareness campaigns and how this department of the police, the Traffic Branch works.

For once, Keep it up the “Dossier Team“!

[except the few technical problems as usual, but we understand “Les inconvénients du directe!”

Perhaps you were expecting a rant on police or something, but in fact, I am quite unsure about something, that’s the reason why I decided to write this post to clear my doubts.

During this live program, the cameras recorded live video of the police officers stopping vehicles and performing routine checks. Of course, nothing was planned and the car driver together with the passengers were shot by the cameras. The cameras captured every single moment from the moment the police officer waived his hand till the moment the cars left the police stop. Also, there was nothing like a warning or some permission asked for the use of those tv cameras.

My questions :

1. Does the MBC has the right to record you and broadcast that video live without your consent?
2. What about the right for privacy? Can this be considered as a violation to this right?
3. What would have been the scene if you were stopped by the police and you refused that the cameras are recording and broadcasting live without your permission?

My understanding

My poor knowledge says :

Following the recent introduction of speed cameras and surveillance cameras in Mauritius, privacy concerns did rise. For this reason, all officers working with the surveillance cameras are supposed to sign a confidentiality agreement to ensure that the proper use of these videos by authorized persons. If am not mistaken, the speed cameras also focus mainly on the vehicle’s number plate instead of the car occupants. These announced measures are done to ensure our privacy.

Simple example :

You were broadcast live on tv while You were with some people in some car. This caused You loads of problems for your personal live has reached the whole of Mauritius.

4. How do you feel and how would you react?

I would be grateful to you for providing the answers and your feedback on this excellent live tv program. Please note that the main objective of this post is purely informative. mainly about our right to privacy.

Related Posts:

• New tv channels as a sign for a MBC fee increase?
• La MBC revient avec des nouveaux chiffres
• No more live broadcast of horse racing on MBC
• Your views about MBC’s new web site?
• Can we have a ‘MBC without politics’?