adminloved ones in a similar manner over the years.
We commiserate with the bereaved families.
Badly parked trucks along roadsides continue posing deadly hazards, yet the law is quite clear.
No one can park with wheels or any part of a vehicle obstructing the carriageway; trucks have to carry large reflectors across their rear; and now warning triangles have to be set up 50m behind the truck.
And as everyone who travels on the highways sees, trucks are parked partially on the verge; frequently they do not have the required reflector zigzag or are parked the wrong way, facing into oncoming traffic; and triangles, or even now a few light boughs from a tree, are positioned almost against the truck where no one can see them until they see the truck itself.
But while the laws are clear few can be enforced.
The police would need a far larger slice of the budget, or would have to abandon almost all non-traffic work using their present budget, to buy and operate the fleet of hundreds of highway patrol cars needed to enforce this particular set of laws.
Zimbabwe does not have those resources.
So a great deal must depend on truck drivers understanding the reasons for the law, recognising that these are not foolish foibles but sensible rules to prevent deaths, and then applying them.
This is not impossible or even difficult.
Owners and managers of large fleets seem to be able to get through to their drivers.
On the rare occasions you see a beer truck, or a rig belonging to a major reputable hauler on the side of the road, you will see it pulled right over and you are warned, and have been for years, that there is danger ahead by correctly positioned triangles.
Even when there are insurmountable problems in moving a damaged truck off the road, the careful driver and reputable company makes sure there is adequate warning.
Perhaps the frequent police roadblocks could make sure that warning triangles are carried by all vehicles, and especially heavy vehicles, and perhaps the police on duty could quiz the drivers on when they must be used, and more importantly how they must be used.
They are not there to mark the place the vehicle is parked, but to give adequate warning well in advance.
The other side of the story concerns all road users.
Many people do not realise just how dangerous night driving is, and the need for far more careful choice of speeds.
Speed limits are maximum permitted speeds, the safe speed on a clear day with little traffic.
In the opinion of the expert who sets these limits, a driver in a reasonably maintained vehicle will be able to see any potential obstruction in time to come safely to a halt.
At night this might not be so, especially with dipped headlights.
If you need 70m to stop a car at the speed you are travelling, including the reaction time, and you can only clearly see for 60m then you cannot stop.
You will either be forced to swerve, impossible if there is oncoming traffic, or will collide.
The dangers when there is oncoming traffic are obvious. First you have dipped lights, so you cannot see so far, and secondly you cannot swerve at the last minute.
Anyone can get an idea of how much space they need to stop, and how far they see clearly at night, with two simple tests.
Stopping distances, including reaction-time distance, can be measured simply by going on a quiet road and, as you pass a marker such as an electricity pole, say 1001 to get minimum reaction time, and then hit the brakes hard.
When you stop, pace back to your marker.
That is your minimum stopping time at that speed, and it is a lot longer than most of us realise.
Your seeing distance is even easier to measure. While parked in your garden, or in a quiet lane, get someone to move a small red reflector away from you until it is indistinct, and do that test with
dipped and full beams.
Again pace out, and again you will find that small warning, which is all you might get, will be a lot closer than you expect when you can see it reasonably clearly.
Then it is easy to work out your maximum speed at night that allows you to stop safely before you hit anything.
Even in a luxury car that will be below the speed limit. This is one prime reason for that 80km/h limit on all heavy vehicles.
As always, especially in a country where most drivers regard the Highway Code as a joke to be crammed for a provisional licence and then tossed in the bin, we all have to assume the other person driving is a criminal.
The police do what they can to enforce driving laws with totally inadequate resources, and the scale of the problem would trouble a force equipped at the levels of a well-developed country, but they cannot do much more than stop the worst excesses.
So it is up to all of us to stay out of trouble.
Online Reporter