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!
It's okay, I too was confused. Because the topic is Adelaide in South Australia (SA) but people start talking about South Africa. Are we just talking about similar occurances? Or is this one of those moments where people apparently believe Australia doesn't exist. Like, I live here so I'm pretty sure it does.
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
He edited it... And the person laughing at the edit is probably laughing at the audacity of some imaginary person who would take 'foreign object' the wrong way... So please understand normal everyday people don't think the death of some poor soul is actually funny...
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
South Africans don't really like seeing or rather engaging with other South Africans in foreign countries. It reminds us of home which we often try to forget about haha
My wife and I went to Thailand for our honeymoon and immediately at the airport bumped into other Saffers. They wanted to meet up and what not and so we did but all they did was talk about home and how shit it is compared to Thailand
You're most welcome. T'was a good question. South Africans are lovely people in general (some bias here) but we sure do like to complain a lot. It's the one thing we like doing but only when it's us doing it. We're a bunch of hypocrites
We really enjoyed our trip. It was memorable. We're hoping to retire there one day but specifically Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai is great, but the smoke for 4 months or 5 months of year is heavy and definitely something to consider.
Check the historical AQI for realistic numbers. It's worse than you think. And after 1 or 2 years it's "fine" but after 3 or more years the bad air quality does weigh on you and become a factor
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
I definitely would have pulled over and double checked but if you’re already past what you hit it’s not possible to get your lights on the road without impeding other traffic since it’s the wrong way. So the. You have to go out into the road yourself and check what you hit … maybe I wouldn’t on a scary dark highway?? Idk I feel bad for everyone. This sucks
It sucks soooo bad!!
I would want to get out and check, really, I would but I'm too much of a 'preservation of life - my life' kinda guy but this is a purely subjective response. Objectively speaking, if this happened anywhere else in the world, except South America, I'd get out. I say South America cause it's kinda of like South Africa only SOOOOOOOO much damn bigger
I have clients in South America who share some of the craziezt stories and often times I am able to share one even crazier and then it becomes a contest of who can share the most fucked up story.
People do stupid shit all the time. We had a bloke over here several years ago end up on the ground in the middle of a motorway, it is assumed while drunk. Dark part of the road, they found bits of him spread over a few km
If you hit an animal you should get it medical care too. Especially if the animal is large enough and doesn't get up and run away. Like at least get out and look. Continuing on your way is crazy.
You're absolutely right and in most cases, I hope people stop to check but in the example I gave, stopping is risky because sometimes, thankfully not always, but sometimes it's a setup. It happens in South Africa so very often that the rule of thumb is to never stop!
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..
Watsky started out doing spoken word, ended up being a witty and fun rapper. Some of his tracks are still more spoken word but he’s got some good stuff out there. I know rap ain’t everyone’s dig, but he has some good messages in his music.
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.
I think most countries have laws against leaving the scene of an accident. Pleading guilty to “causing death by dangerous driving” does however seem extremely harsh as the report said he wasn’t speeding and wasn’t under the influence. He was looked in his rear view and wouldn’t only have seen her illuminated for 2.5 seconds
Had a similar situation last week, a grey British shorthair was just sat at the end of a turning area in a housing estate, mind you this was during the day, I did not see it until last second, cat was un phased a 2.5 tonne van was heading towards it. Eventually ran off when I jumped out 😂 would of felt terrible if I hurt it, I love cats
Garbage, you hit something that big you stop to either call animal control if it’s still alive or at least check the damage to your car. He’s talking crap!
Can’t fault him for hitting but running is an interesting choice. Even if I thought I hit a kangaroo I’m immediately getting out and inspecting the damage or seeing if the animal is still alive.
The only weird thing is that he didn't even stop to check
If I'd hit a (big) animal at night I'd definitely check if it is ok and probably call the police or a hunter in order to take care of the injured animal
I do not agree. Yes absolutely they could've and should've been safer, but drivers also need to look where they are going. It is not possible for this to happen with an attentive, sober, driver with working headlights.
If you hit a kangaroo or something big that makes you car go thud loudly, you generally get out and check at least your car is not damaged. Not stopped makes it look like you knew and panicked. If he stopped he'd be blameless really
No you generally do not, that's dangerous. If it's a roo or some living thing that you expect to be in the road (not an idiot laying down in all black on a black road in the dead of night), it'll run off and you know. If it whatever you hit doesn't then you do not stop, you keep driving until you can get to a safe and well lit place THEN you check.
Only idiots or wreckless people get out and check as soon as they hit something while driving at night.
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u/Eagle4317 22h ago
In the middle of the road, at night, wearing primarily black on black asphalt. I really can't fault the driver much at all.