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My scrape with the Cape Town Ghost Squad

Kelly Lodewyks By:
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 12:53 pm GMT +2

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By Kelly Lodewyks

Let me start by saying that not for one second do I believe that what I did was right or that I didn’t deserve a fine of sorts. I am just annoyed at how the whole matter was handled…

I was travelling on the N1 towards the Cape Town CBD. I hardly ever use the N1 into town because the N2 is much more accessible to me. However, on this day I used the N1 because I happened to be nearer to it than to the N2 at the time. I assumed that the speed limit was 120 km/h. I knew that closer to town it would decrease, but I was at Marine Drive and I imagined that it was still far out enough. I was in the right-hand lane – traveling at what I thought was the speed limit – and found myself having to drop to a little below 80 km/h because there was someone in the right-hand lane who refused to move over. I could not see who it was because there were a few cars between the lane-hogger and myself. There were quite obviously cars that wanted to pass this slow coach, but he wasn’t budging. Is the first rule of the road not “Keep left, pass right”?

In any case, I needed to get into the CBD in a hurry. (I had to collect my mother and go home for a family emergency. This isn’t even an excuse.) I overtook him on the left and wanted to duck in front of him back into the right-hand lane, but he was now speeding up and closing the gap between him and the car in the middle lane (who, I might add, wasn’t exactly sticking to the 80 km/h limit either), so I overtook the car in the middle lane on his left as well. And I kept to the left lane. I checked my side mirror and I now saw that the car (a white VW Golf GTI) that was holding up traffic in the right-hand lane was now catching up to me. Now I was annoyed because that’s not how people are supposed to drive. So, I flipped him off with my middle finger. I know it wasn’t polite, but the family emergency had placed me under some stress. Then the blue lights and sirens went on and this person who was holding up the traffic turned out to be part of Cape Town’s undercover traffic division known as the Ghost Squad.

He motioned for me to pull over. The first thing the officer brought up was that I flipped him off and that it was disrespectful. Yes, I did. He harped on about this for a while. Obviously I had cheesed him off. Another Ghost Squad car also stopped (the driver was minus hat, official jacket or a name badge, so I had no idea who he was). He had seen the whole thing. He also told me I was disrespectful that such incidents lead to road rage. Correct me if I’m wrong, but what the Ghost Squad officer did by hogging the right-hand lane and not letting anyone pass can also easily lead to road rage, and if he was doing it just to force people behind him to get annoyed and exceed the speed limit. Well, that’s entrapment. And it’s unacceptable.

The second officer who pulled off told the first officer that he should probably arrest me. The reason? The disrespect I showed when I flipped the guy off. Is that even a valid reason? And the guy who pulled me off said “Yes. I think I should”. Only after this did the first officer tell me that the N1 at that point is 80 km/h and not 120 km/h and said that there are lots of signs along the road that show me this fact. I drove that road soon after. From where I joined the N1 until just before you get into the CBD, there is only one speed limit sign. Not lots. And I missed it, obviously. That’s why I thought it was a 120 km/h zone. He hardly let me get a word in sideways to explain my story. He interrupted and said I can put it in a letter to get the fine reduced. He wrote me up for R1000 for driving without consideration. How ironic. Was he not driving without consideration when he hogged the right-hand lane and refused to make way for anyone behind him? Should he then not also be given a fine of R1000? Or is he above the law? I am by no means excusing the fact that I was obviously speeding. I will pay my fine. But surely he was one driving without consideration and not me?


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PLEASE NOTE: The opinion expressed in this article is the author's own and publication does not mean it is endorsed by the CAR magazine editorial staff or RamsayMedia, publishers of CAR magazine.
  • Vramaarnet

    How can the traffic police drive so badly and then have the gall to issue a ticket? What am I missing, there is something wrong with this picture? Run it by me again slowly. The Cape Town ghost squad wanted to issue a fine to a driver who failed to move out of the right hand lane and the case made the papers for almost a year. How can the Ghost Squad themselves drive against the law and then issue a ticket? There is something wrong with the training of the officials.

  • Kyle Smith

    I am on your side with this…

    Firstly if they want to catch people breaking the law they should not be breaking the law themselves by hogging the fast lane and not moving for faster moving traffic. What of the car had been a doctor in his private on his way to a hospital to attend to an emergency? If they want to police the highway that is fine but then they have no right to incite breaking the law by forcing people to pass them in the left hand lanes. He could just as well have caught you speeding if he was in the middle lane and this would have prevented the flipping off incident as well. I hate that they make it 80 on that highway, it’s not like you are driving past a residential area or anything.

    Sorry to hear about it but thanks for the forewarning too… I will be more vigilant when traveling on the N1 next time too…

  • Lynn

    Kelly, I’ve been fighting the ‘Keep left, pass right’ number 1 road rule for a while. People believe that they have the right to hog the right hand (fast) lane because they sticking to the speed limit. Even though the left hand lane is completely free. These are the same people that don’t even check their rear view mirrors, don’t check their blind spot when they change lanes, in fact don’t check at all nor do they use their indicators at all. But they see themselves as sticking to the rules of the road, but they don’t realize that the speed limit is far from the only rule of the road. It’s beyond frustrating, and our law enforcement just makes matters worse, by encouraging this behaviour. But when it suites them, they themselves also don’t stock to the speed limit. I even posted about this once on the Traffic Fines page and I got so much flack. About how the speed limit should btrack adhered to. I also mentioned that as the car sticking to the speed limit in the right hand lane, u don’t know the circumstances of the person that needs to pass behind is, so keep left pass right. If its not some sort of emergency, they the ones that are knowing exceeding the speed limit, and have possibly made three decision to deal with the consequences. As long as they are being responsible about it.

    • anon-racer

      100% agreed. you
      can add ‘people pulling into the right lane to overtake someone in the left,
      but then not speeding up enough to pass the slow poke in the left lane.’ AND my
      personal favorite, guy is in the left lane puts on his indicator and all of a
      sudden he believe that that gives him right of way.. Problem is not speeding.
      the problem is idiots driving like sh*t. As a racer myself, i feel safer
      driving at 180km/h+ in a group of other racers, than what i do driving in rush
      hour traffic with a bunch of brain-dead fools. Fools that do not check their
      mirrors or blind spots when overtaking or changing lanes. basics of been safe.
      Personally i think catching speeders and entrapment is an easy way of pushing
      up their stats so that it looks like they are actually doing something right,
      and of course its an easy way of making money. The real problem is people not
      been aware of what is happening around them(not looking far enough ahead not
      checking mirrors and blind spots) e.g. a few months ago myself and 3 other guys
      were racing on our way to a location. The road was empty except for a old Toyota
      camry(presumably doing the legal speed limit) we raced passed him and when the
      robots ahead changed to red we all slowed down and stopped, the guy who wasn’t
      racing, who was doing the ‘safe legal limit’ who did not need to focus of three
      cars traveling at very high speeds around him, plus having to watching the road
      ahead, for whatever reason did not see the robots go red and then almost drove
      into the back of me. But hey those high speed irresponsible drivers are clearly
      to blame! Does anyone know what the death toll on the German autobahn is? i
      mean you must be enormous since there are no speed limits right!?!?! in Germany
      there are 7.2 fatalities for every 100000 vehicles. In South Africa with our
      more civilized and much “safer 120km/h” speed limit 208 fatalities
      for every 100000 vehicles. basic awareness and driver trainin need to be
      improved.

  • Jarques

    This is a clear case of entrapment. The fine of R1000 is also totally excessive. He should be the one that gets fined. Their attitude and manners of often totally offensive and they regularly team up on you (as in this case) to use it as a scare tactic. They are more often than not the one’s that break the law and then fine other people just because they were given one iota of power according to laws they daily break themselves. They dish out the law uneavenly, underhandedly and often one-sidedly. No wonder people HATE and DESPISE them so! There should be a forum created where we can send in videos and photos of them breaking the law as well. They often just blatently sit and look on as taxis break the law.

  • Tshepo

    The men in uniform always do this because they are the authority. You were so damn right.

  • Nigel

    The Traffic Police never change.

    Back in 1974 during the fuel crisis and a blanket 80 Km/h national limit, whilst cruising at 80-85 Km/h in my 1972 Alfa Romeo 2000 Berlina, a white unmarked Ford Cortina P/U Truck closed up right on my tail and was deliberatly trying to goad me into a dice to go faster.

    After several kilometres, the two Officers who were not wearing caps got bored and roared past, both now wearing their caps. They were hoping to sucker me into breaking the limit by trying to push me along.

    Stealth driving by Traffic police is always present and fast drivers just have to get to know their unmarked vehicles.

  • Nick

    These double standards really grate me. I think it’s time to privatise the traffic police nationally. Then we’ll see some proper enforcement. I’m so sick of this “holier than thou” and elitist attitude that all traffic officials seem to have.

    Instead of hiding behind a bush with a radar gun, these okes should be inspecting the unroadworthy vehicles that are a danger to us all and get them off our roads. I’m not even going to mention the taxis co that will get me too worked up…..

  • Force

    Kelly, this could have been avoided if you had kept the law. Officers had all rights to handle the matter in the way they did.

    Over Speeding
    Overtaking on the left
    Insulting an officer of the law
    Attitude
    Fault finding in Others…..

    • Anon

      Overtaking on the left is not illegal last I checked? Anyone can confirm or correct that?

    • anon-racer

      100% agreed. you
      can add ‘people pulling into the right lane to overtake someone in the left,
      but then not speeding up enough to pass the slow poke in the left lane.’ AND my
      personal favorite, guy is in the left lane puts on his indicator and all of a
      sudden he believe that that gives him right of way.. Problem is not speeding.
      the problem is idiots driving like sh*t. As a racer myself, i feel safer
      driving at 180km/h+ in a group of other racers, than what i do driving in rush
      hour traffic with a bunch of brain-dead fools. Fools that do not check their
      mirrors or blind spots when overtaking or changing lanes. basics of been safe.
      Personally i think catching speeders and entrapment is an easy way of pushing
      up their stats so that it looks like they are actually doing something right,
      and of course its an easy way of making money. The real problem is people not
      been aware of what is happening around them(not looking far enough ahead not
      checking mirrors and blind spots) e.g. a few months ago myself and 3 other guys
      were racing on our way to a location. The road was empty except for a old Toyota
      camry(presumably doing the legal speed limit) we raced passed him and when the
      robots ahead changed to red we all slowed down and stopped, the guy who wasn’t
      racing, who was doing the ‘safe legal limit’ who did not need to focus of three
      cars traveling at very high speeds around him, plus having to watching the road
      ahead, for whatever reason did not see the robots go red and then almost drove
      into the back of me. But hey those high speed irresponsible drivers are clearly
      to blame! Does anyone know what the death toll on the German autobahn is? i
      mean you must be enormous since there are no speed limits right!?!?! in Germany
      there are 7.2 fatalities for every 100000 vehicles. In South Africa with our
      more civilized and much “safer 120km/h” speed limit 208 fatalities
      for every 100000 vehicles. basic awareness and driver training need to be
      improved.

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