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.

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• Beware of people throwing stones along the motorways!

Wow….

3500… C’est le nombre de dos d’ânes (speed humps/breaks) sur nos routes… J’ai été stupéfait en lisant cet article sur l’express de ce matin…. J’avais même écrit un article sur ce sujet quelques mois de cela! A lire ici.

C’est très bien, nous détenons au moins un record pour quelque chose

Bon weekend à tous et soyez prudent sur la route!

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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!

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It is becoming very serious and dangerous now.

Yesterday night, my colleague told me about a case in which people threw a stone at a car which was going along the motorway from the Riche Terre (Jumbo) roundabout till the Terre Rouge’s one.

And a few minutes ago, my dad warned me since the police registered loads of cases again during the last days. Indeed, some malicious people are taking fun to throw stones at passing vehicles on different parts of the motorways (not only in the north).  People are reporting similar cases, not only in the north, but even in the central part of the island.

Drivers from the north already know the danger when driving past the Terre Rouge roundabout, near the cemetery.

In the past, there have been other cases where people placed big rocks along the road so that the drivers run directly into them. Of course, if it very difficult to stop your vehicle immediately when you are flying at over 90KM/hr.

They usually operate in groups. While some of them aim at the cars, other people wait patiently for the drivers to get down of their vehicles before attacking them. They usually hide into dark areas or on the flyover bridges.

It is a driver’s normal instinct to get out of his vehicle and check what happened.

BEWARE! DO NOT STOP YOUR VEHICLE ANYMORE!

Drive straight to the nearest Police Station to report it or to some safer location to check for any damages.

Advices :

The road is becoming more and more dangerous everyday, and thieves are trying to be more and more smart to attack you.

• Try to avoid roads near high risk areas (You know what I am talking about)
• Its more safe to use the “vieux chemin” at night.
• Do not travel alone especially late in the night
• It may sound a bit dangerous, but I believe that you should not be driving along a straight line if you are driving the only vehicle in some remote road.
• Never stop, especially if you are alone.
• Avoid staying long at Red Traffic Lights, drive away if you see that the road are clear, but be careful!
• If you see some suspicious people on the roads, avoid slowing down.

And finally,

• If you ever see some people asking you to slow down (EVEN if they seem to be in “Police Uniforms“) and there are no signs of any police vehicles around, DO NOT STOP!
  Head straight to the Police Station and tell them that people were trying to stop you. The Police officers will then verify this information if needed.

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