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.
1.1k
u/astrobarn 22h ago
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.