Thursday, 19 July 2007

How To Stop Traffic Fines - But Don't Complain About Crime

Fact #1 - South Africa's crime rate is unacceptably high.

Fact #2 - Many of the people who complain about Fact #1 are the same who regularly flout the law by speaking on their cellphones while driving, by cheating on their taxes, by offering bribes to police, and so on.

Fact #3 - Many of the people mentioned in Fact #3 think they are clever/smart by breaking the law and getting away with it. In fact they are contributing to a mindset of lawlessness in the country and are the first to complain when they are affected by a crime such as burglary or mugging (or rape and murder).

We need to stand together against crime. There are some fabulous initiatives in South Africa that stand together with law enforcement to create a better future for ourselves and our children. Of course there are problems in the South African Police Service and various Metro police units but let's stand with them and support them.

For these reasons I am disgusted by the promotion through various media of a product which blocks the reading of number plates by traffic cameras. It works by reflecting the flash of the camera back to the camera thereby rendering the photograph useless.
This is a clear way to subvert the law and gives the user licence to drive at any speed along our roads without fear of being issued with a camera fine.

What sickens me is that everyday families are robbed of their loved ones by drivers travelling at excessive speeds and yet there are people getting rich by selling this product. There is something not right here.

According to the Photoblocker website, South African law allows for this product to be used! Isn't it time this was declared illegal?

What do you think?

2 comments:

Radar said...

I have had 4 fines this year and paid out R1100.00 in total. But for the first time I started to have faith in the cops. Suddenly it felt as though they were actually doing their jobs. I paid the money over happily and now heed the 60km/h signs in town. It reminded me of Rudy Guiliani's 'Broken Window' policy.

Anonymous said...

If you can draw a concrete link between speed and death then I might be more inclined to listen to you. In Germany where they have some unrestricted roads, the accident rate is much lower than here. Speed has been made a scapegoat while poor driving, drinking, overloading and unroadworthy vehicles are the real culprits. Speed restrictions are fine when used sensibly (eg outside a school), but on a long empty road through the Freestate it's ridiculous.

Think about how long a fully loaded truck takes to stop from 120 km/h compared to a sportscar. The limits are arbitrary.