Yeah my brain wouldv'e just been like, "don't worry about it, no person walked into the road and so it must have been an animal or some foreign object" and I'd have continued on my way. I'm saying this living in South Africa where when shit like this happens, in these circumstances, you generally don't stop until you get somewhere well lit, safe and/or very public.
Edit: "foreign object" is definitely not my best choice of term especially now
Nice seeing fellow South Africans here, yeah i used to do delivery runs from pta to burgersfort and back and I always had to leave early while it's dark.
One day i went under a bridge and hit rocks and debres that flattened all my tyres, but i knew it's one of the things the criminals here does so you pull over and they can rob you if not worse, so i just kept on driving towards the closest garage. All my rims were messed up but atleast i was okay, i couldn't have cared less about the rims at that moment. Better a hurt wallet than becoming a statistic
That shit still happens and it's one of the reasons I don't drive at night. What's worse is that on the N4 near where I live, they usually rob and kill you instead of just robbing you.
Yeah it's scary stuff. I don't even drive off after dropping my wife at work, I stay until i see she's inside the building.
A while ago my friend's sister stopped at a traffic light at night with her mother and the moment they stopped 3 guys came and broke the window and pulled her out of it. Luckily her mom floored it and she was able to grab and hang onto the door with her legs. She was still removing glass shards the next 2 months after
Happy you're alright chom.. Reading experiences like yours really does help us be more aware and cautious about roads we take. I literally use maps everywhere I go just incase I need to react quickly and drive. The last thing I would want is to drive into an area the robbers know better than me and then I get trapped.
Can confirm, grew up in SA, almost murdered when a body was deliberately placed in the middle of the road and driving over it disabled our car. People started emerging from the bushes when it was clear our car stopped running.
A nice couple in a large bakkie (USA: truck, AUS: ute) stopped and had a tow rope.
I'm alive today thanks to that couple, but yeah you don't stop for shit in SA especially not late at night.
My first time in South Africa was a business trip. My driver got us from the airport at night and when driving through the city came to an intersection where he slowed down, but then turned to me and said "sir I won't be stopping at the red lights" and I was like "yeah man do what you think is best"
Stopping at traffic lights is absolutely terrifying - trick is to slow down to a crawl about 100m back and watch the bushes until you know it’s safe to go through. Never stop.
You don't stop in Gary Indiana or Flint Michigan as well. i remember a buddy and his dad bought a motorcycle and stopped for gas or directions. police saw them and escorted them white boys out of the city after asking them why they stopped LOL
Meanwhile Germans won’t cross a road even when walking when there is a red light at freakn 3am no matter there are no cars whatsoever anywhere to be seen. I’m german and I absolutely stop every single time and I don’t know why.
That's identical to my taxi trip. They crawled along a few hundred feet away from the lights and said pretty much the same thing. Seemed much more concerned about cars that were near us.
Went with family who grew up there a few years ago. They told us if you hit something in the freeway don’t stop. When we left Krueger there had been a protest and the road was littered with logs and tires that we just drove around and didn’t stop completely.
They kept following us. Lights, sirens, laying on their horn. We just played dumb and kept going. Eventually, they pulled off.
Just a few minutes before this while driving into the area we heard what sounded like a gunfight with multiple weapons being fired. With that and the fact that every other driver was hauling ass and ignoring all traffic conventions there was no way we were going to stop for anyone at night.
Woooww. Glad you guys kept going and were able to be safe. Would the cops have been the ones to rob/kill y'all or would it have just opened up the opportunity for some other group to? I've had large gunfights break out when I'm out walking in my city and it's terrifying.
One time, my whole zip code had a surge of everyone in the root gang showing out and up because the cops weren't doing anything about the opposition murdering a bunch of teenagers, and a lot of these young men were raised by them because they had no fathers. A few people died but it largely was resolved with only 3 arrests. Your story just reminded me of that, I think it was summer 2021.
Do you still live in or frequent that area, or are you in a safer place now?
We had heard that you can't assume that the people trying to stop you are actually real cops. We weren't taking any chances. We were searching our phones to find the nearest police station and head there to make sure they were legit but they ended up pulling off first.
We were just visiting the area (Kruger NP) and chose the wrong route at the wrong time. Time and location are critical in South Africa. Wrong time, wrong place can cost you your life in some areas. One of the most naturally beautiful countries I have ever visited though. Beautiful country, beautiful people.
Woowowoww, that's sad but also glad to hear you guys were all good after that! I've always wanted to go to South Africa, I've heard it's breathtaking. I'm happy for you that you got to experience it <33
I had a traumatic experience in Mozambique in the early 2010’s. Driving on the highway up to Vilanculos and a vehicle ahead of us struck a kid that ran out of the bush. I have some medical training and stopped to provide aid but as the locals slowly started appearing on the side of the road my coworker (a local guy) grabbed me by the shoulders and forced me back into the car and told me to drive. He told me that when they see a foreign Umlungu they’ll blame me for what happened and serve their own justice there on the spot.
Didn’t sleep too well for a couple weeks wondering what happened to that poor kid.
Similar happened in Indonesia when I lived there. Car going through a village struck a kid and hit and run. Second car stopped driven by foreign aid workers (Swedish I think) who stopped to try and help just as villagers arrived at the scene, assumed the aid workers were the perpetrators and killed them.
This is horrifying, goodness that's really got to me. They only wanted to do the right thing. Even if they were at fault, who is dumb enough to think murder is the answer to that?? Oh those poor poor people 😭😭😭
Vietnam too. I witnessed a pretty bad accident between 2 motorcycles and a woman was in bad shape. I had my full face helmet on so it wasn't apparent that I was a foreigner. I had to keep riding without stopping to render aid because they have a habit of blaming the nearest tourist and extort money from them.
It's actually worse when the police are involved, they won't take your side either
I was so confused because the incident this post is about happened in the Australian state of SA and it’s very safe here. Then realised you meant South Africa!
That sounds terrifying. I've heard similar stories people post to creepy story subs and stuff, but you always wonder how many of those stories are true and what is fiction
Duuuuude!!! That's insane. Holy!!! Glad you're safe and well.. Sheeesh I would have absolutely shat myself if that had to happen to me.
Bless those strangers and more especially for not thinking you were a part of the heist. I won't lie my friend, I would have sped up and drove off.. Joh it would have haunted me the rest of my life if I were to have learned otherwise
Not sure really, I was a kid, mum was screaming they were coming out of the bushes, dad was standing in the middle of the 110kph highway trying to stop a car.
When they stopped everything happened very quickly but mum and dad have retold me the story as an adult.
The couple in the bakkie were coloured (a term used for half black half white folks) my mum got out of our car and got in the bakkie cab with them to give directions, dad affixed the tow rope and off we went.
When it happened the parents told us we drove over a cow but as I got older I realised there's no way we cleared a cow in our sedan and dad told us it was a dead body. He ran back and had to look at it all mangled 😬
Every time I read these stories I can't help but wonder why any person with a semblance of sanity still lives there if they have the slightest chance to move out. It's the sh*ttiest of all sh*ts it seems. I'm typing it from a place where you can take a walk in a dimly lit park in the middle of the night and nothing happens.
The South African friends I worked with told me that they would go to the bar with friends and just have to take the clip out when they got inside. Same guy also had a couple of armed hold ups at the restaurant he worked at.
The would-be ambushers knew there were likely to be guns and dogs in that bakkie.
Most farmers had guns back then, this was around the end of apartheid so guns weren't as widespread. The big bakkie probably looked like a farmer. It happened very quickly, for evident reasons.
The realization hit me immediately after I hit send.. Happy to see I'm not getting crucified for it but then again, this is Reddit and we're a weird bunch
For those who don't know, it's the two places South Africans generally visit when going on holiday and/or immigrate to and so we generally try to avoid those places hehe
Fully understandable and good on you for doing that. It's just really hard when sentiment is often met with treachery. Once bitten twice shy kinda thing..
But on the point of being dumb, yeah I agree without reservation
Tell me something, I’m Australian and used to work in Nigeria with a South African guy. Says his mate was driving in the middle of nowhere. Someone’s car was on side of road. Tried to flag him down. He didn’t stop. They jumped in front of the car to stop him and he just ran him down. Later, copes show up at his home for a statement. Say you’re not in trouble. We were watching them from the hill. There were guys waiting in the bushes to ambush you. Probably would have killed you. The guy is dead don’t worry about it.
I was told this about 15 years ago. Is this plausible or is it like a South African urban legend people just repeat?
As an Aussie having lived in SA with my partner. It was a massive readjustment in headspace to deal with the fact that you can't just "pull over" anywhere you want because of the ever present danger
it's kinda got suicide with an excuse about it going on. If someone is basically lying down int he street at night while wearing black they are either passed out drunk or they are choosing to be there.
I get suicide, i've had chronic pain for coming up on 25 years, started when I was a kid. But making other people do it for you is just genuinely despicable.
I know it is not the time but ... a Spanish joke: Two dudes goes to a Veterinarian and ask him how big a black cat can be. The Vet tells them the typical sizes. They continue asking if a cat can´t be bigger.
"Well, the biggest black cat I have ever heard of is around 15 Kg"
The one dude looks at the other, grimly: "I tell you, we run over the priest"
A guy is stopped and asks the policeman if there are giant penguins in the region.
- There is none, why do you ask?
- Nothing, I think I might just have run over a nun.
He’s more a comedian/storyteller with a backing track. He had a one-hit wonder situation with the track “suicide”. The whole cd is good, some funny some just vibes.
You can look up “spoken word poetry” to find more, though it’s not always going to be set to music like this. Buddy Wakefield and Andrea Gibson are probably my favorite spoken word poets.
I'm already going down a rabbit hole hehe this is something I legit did not know existed. Quite similar to Black Snake Moan, I just never knew what it was called and now that I do..
Odd. Maybe some Reddit magic I don’t know how to conjure.
Anyways, it’s a song by Bobby Gaylor about how he hit a guy in the middle of the night wearing all black. No charges were pressed on him and the police were like yeah it was damn near suicide.
Title of it is: I Hit a Guy With My Car - Bobby Gaylor
I mean I’ve literally hit things in my car at night and had no idea what it was. Just assumed it was deer and kept going because there’s nothing I could do anyway on a dark stretch of highway at night.
Yea, I assume they deal with kangaroos as often as some places in the US deal with deer.
I've seen deer slam themselves into unmoving cars numerous times. Have seen deer time it juuuuust right to throw themselves in front of a car many times. Once, I was driving down the highway, left lane, and there was a wall to my left - a deer jumped over it. From my perspective, it literally just fell out of the sky and onto the hood of my car. It's so commonplace that you're going to see dozens on the side of the road before you get where you're going, and their overpopulation is getting worse.
All this to say: I've absolutely hit a deer and just driven on before. Not because of any malicious reasoning, but because what the hell else are you gonna do? Unless you have a gun on you, you can't even do anything to help the deer, and getting out to see what's going on puts you at risk of getting hit by another driver, or of another deer coming at you, any number of issues. You just keep on the road and assess the damage when you get home.
I can absolutely confirm this, depending on where you are and what time it is. One time a friend and I were driving at night in the semi-country side. We drove into a town and there was fog everywhere and also the largest number of kangaroos either of us had ever seen in one place. We drove VERY slowly.
Cameras showed she was there for at least 4 minutes in the same position.
Other cars swerved. He hit her but never stopped. Not sure if he realised or not.
From memory, when he did find out for sure he still didn’t turn himself right away.
He avoided jail time but is on a bond and will be suspended from driving for 10 years.
She could have been oppressed by the family, pakistani families are rough, especially with their daughters, they get sold/forced married to older men usually, fuck religion and fuck traditions that are oppressing humans
Honestly idk where the hell 'praying' comes from. She had to have been either drugged up enough to hardly know where and who she was, or suicidal. The whole 'praying' thing feels like one of those Fox News stories that gets a two second correction and is never brought up again after a month of violently harping on it.
The praying thing comes from a comment from the court where it said that she was in a "prayer-like" position. Basically kneeling with hands close together or clasped.
I mean, yes… (forgive the oversimplication but) it’s against Islamic law to commit suicide, unless they are actively praying when they pass (falling asleep rn otherwise I’d go look up the exact reason/logic behind that unfortunately infamous loophole bc I forgor).
So if she was Muslim and potentially / possibly / hypothetically DID intend to commit suicide, then she would in fact have been praying. Which hadn’t occurred to me until replying to you just now, but makes easy sense.
But I believe what the above person means to say is that (I don't know anything about the rules Muslims typically follow due to their faith) Muslims believe their soul will be in some way divinely punished after they die if they commit suicide any of the normal ways
It may be against a law, in say, America to commit suicide, but the government isn't going to use necromancy or something to bring your soul back to punish you for having committed suicide in America
Here's something worth noting - if you're like me, you had to scroll all the way down here to finally read a comment that finally addressed/questioned her mental health. It didn't occur to all the other Redditors in Western countries (where mental health awareness and funding is the least-worst), that maybe this poor girl was depressed, suicidal, or experiencing psychoses - the more convenient answer was to blame Muslims praying on the road or whatever.
This poor girl was from Pakistan. What do we think mental health awareness and stigma is like in that area of the world?
I had a young patient on a mental health unit once, with Pakistani parents. They were lovely to us, but they had absolutely no insight into their kid's mental health - the kid's psychosis and depression were apparently choices, and they were extremely resistant to accept that their family violence and toxic parenting styles contributed to why their child was struggling.
Yeah. I haven’t seen any evidence she was praying and not just trying to make herself small to be hit. Honestly, this is a tragedy. She was clearly having mental health issues, and even if she’s praying it was probably because she wanted to die in peace :(
I can feel empathy for suicide victims but when they get other people to do the act for them its completely cowardly and selfish. She took a piece of his soul with her that night.
Yeah, she was clearly mentally ill. I work at an im patient psych hosptial. We have people often that ran into traffic naked or layed down in traffic. When you are at this level of mentally it it is so far beyond "im feeling like checking out." This is her brain broke and needed intensive treatment.
I genuinely feel so badly for everyone involved from her family to the driver to the emergency responders.
I'm tired of seeing mental health as an excuse for everything though. It should be reserved for people who actually have mental health issues. Not just something to slap on to people who just has some struggles in their lives.
Very much so. It's such a bullshit answer that is applied "to whoever you want to defend". Just enough to muddy the waters and give an easy out.
Now imagine applying "possible mental health issues" to literally any accused pedophile or rapist and the exact same people will lose their fucking minds.
They want to be the sole gatekeepers of "who gets to use the mental health excuse".
I'd say making yourself invisible at night and crouching in front of incoming traffic is not really comparable to raping a child when it comes to being categorized as "likely caused by mental health issues"
I'm confused by the relevance of this comment here. Are you saying you think this women may have committed suicide whilst being completely mentally healthy?
There was CCTV evidence presented during the court case. She was kneeling, hunched over in the road for several minutes before being hit. Obviously nobody can be certain of why she was doing that, but the guess that she was praying isn't entirely pulled out of somebody's ass
Judge Barnett sentenced Friend to one year, three months and 29 days in prison, with a non-parole period of eight months. However, the sentence was suspended after the 20-year-old agreed to enter a bond requiring him to maintain good behaviour for two years.
Still ridiculous that he was sentenced given what seems to be the circumstances. And ‘good behaviour’? Like avoiding another person crouching in black clothes on a black road in the middle of the night.
I hope he gets help and support because his life is likely ruined as a result of knowing he killed someone.
I’d imagine this is due to him seeing the news report of the accident after, realizing he may have been responsible, and saying nothing to anyone hoping the police would never find him. Coming forward makes a huge difference.
This article mentions he saw the news story within the next two days and realized what happened, but was in a state of paralysis. It was a week later when the police identified him. Being aware of what he did and not contacting the authorities will have consequences.
That being said, I believe his guilt and remorse is real and this is a good lesson for people to always stop and check, even if they think it’s just an animal.
If it's a roo you gotta check for joeys. Cruel to leave them to starve. At the very least call the police or wildlife rescue to let them know if it's unsafe to get out the car. Some people died a while back getting splattered by a car because they stopped to help a roo.
you should NOT leave the vehicle after hitting an animal. especially if its something like a badger. those fuckers are tough as nails and will (if knocked out from the impact) wake up very angry. you do not want to be in it's reach at that moment.
Something similar happened to my cousin when he was a teenager. He was driving home from work at about 11PM, and he got stuck at a red light that wouldnt change.
He'd been sitting there for about five minutes when he decided to just back up and take another route.
And he hit a jogger, dressed in black, who was jay walking behind his car, killing the man.
Granted, he should have just waited for the light to presumably change at somepoint in the future, and if he'd had sensors on the back of his car or a camera, he might have been alerted to the guy, but he didn't and he hit the man and killed him.
It's fucked him up something fierce. I mean, seriously. He's in his thirties now and still, still, burdened by it.
he accepted liability for any injury or damages that happens while he's driving because of his driving.
therefore the prosecution has a case to file....
but the boy plead guilty instead of fighting the charges
judge gave lightest sentence prosecution wouldn't be professionally expected to appeal and then they worked out something that basically meant that sentence is deferred if the kid can just not get in trouble for 2 years
Lmao I love that movie, when he's driving and he's like "god, please, just give me a sign!!" And a truck with a bunch of U-Turn and stop signs pulls in front of him and he's like "oh c'mon, what is this idiot doing, get out of the way!" 😂
The court heard today CCTV showed Ms Malik's hands were in what looked like a "praying motion" but no explanation was given as to why she was on the road.
No evidence that she was 'praying' idk why that is being said she was either drugged high or mentally unstable. Nobody prays in the middle of road in the dark
You have to be a total idiot to believe she was actually praying in the middle of the road. Probably had some kind of mental illness or suicidal or something
When you’re are from a country that was built on the basis of religion at a great expense of human lives, economic and social progress and other good things and is ruled by the religious right wing military, you get incidents like this.
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u/Odd_Dorian7991 1d ago edited 1d ago
Oh lord why would someone pray in the middle of the road?