We active citizens take action over injustices

• Cape Argus

ARE WE really active citizens, as we proclaim to be? This column has frequently debated what we do – and don’t do – in response to the wide range of dangers that surround us. In the face of crime, drunk drivers, bullies, people who break up families, the corrupt.

But are we all talk? Are we “big hat, no cattle”, as they say in Texas?

Sometimes we’re forced to act. Like now...

On June 16, 2011, Estelle Brigando, 50, was driving her daughter and Courtney Moore, 18, home from a modern dancing show in Claremont. Just past the airport, near the R300 turn-off, their lives ended. It is alleged a Mercedes travelling at speed smashed the women’s Toyota Yaris off the road from behind.

The Merc driver is still facing culpable homicide charges.

On Tuesday night, I was driving on the same stretch of road, carrying two Grade 7 pupils home from an international maths competition. Just a few kilometres from where Brigando and Moore died, I was in the fast lane, part of a string of cars overtaking slower traffic.

A car sped up behind us, and began “tailgating” – driving practically on our bumper. Lack of following distance is regarded as one of main causes of the carnage on South Africa’s roads.

I touched my brakes, just enough to activate the brake lights, to warn the driver to fall back at least a little. He didn’t budge.

Instead, he moved right, suggesting he was about to pass me on the right-hand shoulder if I did not “get out tamy way”.

I drive a solid Land Rover and wasn’t about to be forced off the road – I was still busy overtaking, legally and safely.

But he was putting my two child passengers in serious danger. If I had had to slow even a little, he would have smashed into us.

This continued for several minutes. I activated my brake lights again, this time repeatedly, to urge him to back off.

Instead, he yanked his car left, sped past me on the inside lane, and recklessly forced his way back into the fast lane ahead of the car in front of me.

He did this at least twice more as he raced off towards Somerset West. So what does one do now? Laugh it off? Dismiss him as a moron, and do no more? No. That’s precisely what an inactive citizen would do.

This driver was actively endangering many motorists, including my son and his classmate. Imagine another two funerals.

It’s in the public interest to speak out about such drivers.

I’ve thus laid formal complaints with the SAPS, the metro police, the Traffic Department and the provincial Transport Department, as the vehicle is a registered tour vehicle. I contacted the company owner and asked him to investigate. Their schedules are logged and the cars carry GPS trackers.

To the driver: You are a danger to society. I won’t be bullied off the road by you. You’re being watched, and now investigated.

You brought this upon yourself. Let’s see how well your aggression is working for you now.