Dangerous Roads in Mauritius

Another item that may apply to many roads is the following.

Just after sunset most commonness drivers switch on lights on their vehicle however you will find many also do not put their lights on an this can present dangers to you if you look and see the road ahead is clkear to overtake and suddenly your lights show up a car coming towards you with no lights on.  This happens even up to two hours after sunset and the police seem not to bother as I have seen cars like that go past police cars and nothing seems to happen.  Likewise a single headlight coming towards you does not always mean a motorcycle it can also be a car where the driver thinks its ok to drive with a faulty light.

Part Two   - Cascavelle to Flic en Flac

This road can get very busy at times and is on hill so often you get plenty of the must overtake the Bus car drivers who have little regard for the fact that you are coming in the opposite direction.

This weekend as the evidence shows and one accident was this morning on one of the dips in the road near the turning for Domaine Anna , there has been two or more accidents where extensive damage has been done to the ARMCO metal barriers. To damage these like they have been done some force has to be made and that usually means speeding vehicles.

This mornings accident was quite severe as I saw the front of the bus involved parked near Cascavelle.

Thanks Lesjar- love your 30 seconds rule of driving. We have indeed observed this to be true and have either been honked by drivers impatient to overtake us or had to slow down almost to a stop at times, because some maniac is overtaking and we'd have a head-on collision if we didn't!

Keep up the good work!

I could state the obvious such as avoid driving through Port Louis at peak hour or at any time of the day - but that would be stating the obvious!!

Do you or anyone know why there's a permanent barrier across the Port Louis Motorway Bypass? Travelling from the north to the south after you leave the Port Louis Motorway after driving for about 10 minutes, there's a concrete barrier across the road. We thought it was just on Sundays or after 6.00pm but we went down today around 3.00pm and it was still there! We tried the Crevette rd but it went nowhere...so we had to go back and through Port Louis which was S-L-O-W!

Cheers,

Tamar

There was a mudslide a few weeks ago so it was closed off, again

Thanks gronk007- is there any way around it or do you just have to take the road most travelled?

Cheers,
Tamar

Sadly, you have to go through PL... On weekends I don't really notice the difference.. Weekdays on the other hand.. Pfftt avoid unless absolutely necessary!

Where the road block is at the roundabout to Creve Couer if you take the first left to Montagne Longue or Long Mountain and then at the traffic lights turn right and follow the signs for Nicoliere or St Pierre it will take you up the hill and over to Nouvelle Decouvert and then not Ripailles and the other end of the blocked up section and thence back onto the Motorway thus avoiding Port Louis again and if you take the left side of the motorway it rejoins the main motorway south of the Phoenix bottleneck during rush hours as well

TamarG wrote:

Thanks gronk007- is there any way around it or do you just have to take the road most travelled?

Cheers,
Tamar

Hello, as lesjar has described, there is a way through the mountains but it's not for the faint hearted! It's a steep windy road and you'll need a powerful engine. It's a bus route too, so can get a bit tight on narrow roads and that doesn't stop people overtaking in ridiculous places. I'd stick to the traffic via Port Louis.

Another accident this morning with two cars that were very much dented and bits broken quite possibly one car was going very fast.  This happened at the traffic lights on the main road at Cascavelle shopping centre.

At this rate the number of accidents occurring it would be better to call the place

CRASHCAVELLE !!!!!!

Watch out if you live or commute to the north, especially the road between Piton and Mapou, on Saturday night two cars had head on collision no doubt each trying to over take , consequently three dead of the same family.

I have driven in many countries around the world , here it's a night mare simply because most of the drivers are stupidly ignorant of the driving codes and they never follow the rules. Never seen a country where they all seem to rush not because they are late, the only reason they act like this is that a car for them is  meant to be driven stupidly fast without caring for others or themselves. As a result we see innocent people getting killed!

Shame the government and the police force are too slow to react.

Take care and drive safe!

Thanks Wandlewed. We did try the Crevette turnoff and the road was very steep and windy with buses on it and it seemed to end in a track! So we turned around and went back. We only have a small car so I think we'll take your advice!!

Cheers,

Tamar

Hi Lesjar & All, some great observations shared!

Round about tipp at night: Always when you approach it, drive absolutely slow and try to stop short at least and look well to both left and right because cyclists without any lights nor reflective T-Shirts can appear out of nowhere!

Indeed for various short distances that people drive, considering that the surface area of the island is not huge, a few minutes slower drive can reduce your risks than a fast drive just for the sake of it. The concept of "highway" doesn't really work here and you should be careful with the 110 Km/h threshold. You are better off till max 80-90 Km/h and not on the fast lane ofcourse. 110 Km/h for just short quick overtake.

Why? Because there are obstacles of all sorts every now and then and very unexpected they can occur! This could be a dog crossing out of nowhere, sheep grazing in the middle of the highway and then they just cross the road, people jogging on the highway, mopeds on the fast lane.

Overtaking. Serious problem because many drivers underestimate the distance required to properly overtake, this leads to many head on collisions. Sometimes it's just better to wait and drive slow for a while than do a risky manoeuvre. Some drivers overtake on hills and curves even though they cannot see at all if there is a vehicle coming from opposite direction.

This is an interesting topic for me. I am English, and have been visiting Mauritius for 22 years ( my wife is Mauritian ) and until recently, I was a Police Inspector on the Police Traffic Department in the UK. One of my jobs was to investigate serious and fatal accidents. I have to say that the standard of driving in Mauritius is very very poor, and I really do believe that there are a number of problems that need addressing urgently; (1) the Driving Examination is too easy for anyone to pass.(2) The Police Traffic dept in Mauritius are ineffective. There needs to be more emphasis on enforcement and education of drivers. (3) Drink driving is an epidemic in Mauritius…the sentences for people caught drink driving need to be much higher , in order to act as a deterrent. In the UK, you can be imprisoned for drink driving ! (4) The general motoring population seem to be in a rush to get everywhere…why?? Why be in a rush to die? Considering the fact that Mauritius is only a small island, the number of road fatalities each year is absolutely astonishing. The government really needs to act fast, as too many Mauritians are perishing on the roads, needlessly.

Also often seen, there is often absolutely no real effort to secure a breakdown site or push the vehicle to the roadside. I've seen a lorry standing in the middle of the road in Bambous while a guy laying under it with the legs to the direction of the other traffic.
People are parking in the middle of the lane right on the crest up from Canot where the farmer sells veg the crossing.
Yesterday I saw a bus speeding away on the Bambous Geoffroy road (after the Childrens village..the bus looked absolutely like the one in the most recent Flic en Flac accident: http://www.defimedia.info/media/k2/item … 1436759896)
Best is to stay away from Flic en Flac between 16 - 19 hrs on Sundays. After new year it was absolutely terrible. There was a big traffic jam and some donkeys still try to overtake...I was going into Cascavelle Shopping Village from Beau Songes and at the Corner of KFC someone was on my lane...and no go for minutes because all was blocked.
I think the new government did its big share to this, stopping the use of the radar cameras for a long while now and not applying the points system. This might have saved some lives and additionally brought some extra money for the country.
One of the best points is the road from the motorway to Grand Riviere North West. The whole road is 60kmh allowed, also on the bumpy, tight and curvy road into GRNW. Even driving 50 seems to be way to fast for me in some parts...on a road where no pavement is and people walk on the street. On the top end in Pailles after the last hump is even an 80kmh speed control sign...for a piece of about 50 - 100m.

Oh yeah drink driving, we once booked a van for a tour to the north. In Pailles we went on the motorway, in Cassis (ca. 2km later) he nearly hit his first isle on the roadside. After Pamplemousses Garden we decided that I keep on driving the van.

Also need to add in that don't speed on the highway stretch that leads to and from the airport as often it is slippery and this is the part of the highway where I have seen the most of upturned vehicles on the side of the road!

Some of the speed cameras are not placed in optimal places. Some of them need to be placed exactly in the middle stretch of some junction roads where vehicles tend to have a maximum increase of their velocity and not at the end of the road where cars have to stop anyway!

Some roads are dangerous,with curves etc,but dangerous people who make the roads dangerous,if everybody respect each other,only minor accident might happen

The  Motorway section between Phoenix and Curepipe suffers like Beau Songes in that the ARMCO seems to like being bent and twisted on a frequent basis , perhaps it has some sort of force field that attracts like a magnet vehicles nearly every day to play with the Armco and see who comes off worse.

Any road in a town is dangerous at the traffic lights if you want to turn left or any left turn you want to make.
From personal experience having an accident in February with a motorcyclist.

(1) Beware it seems the rule like the 30 second rule is that motorcyclists at traffic lights etc overtake you on the left.
(2) they will go straight on in front of you despite your turning indicator on to turn left.

Remedy for this and this can apply on open roads as well, always drive as close to the left kerb as possible so as not to leave any room for the motorcyclist if they want to mount the pavement or drive in the field then you cannot stop them.
also always look in your left mirror 3 or 4 times when turning left and turn your head to the left at lease twice after looking in the mirror.

It is sad that they choose to put their lives in peril so DO NOT LEAVE ROOM ON THE LEFT FOR THEM ANYWAY !!!

The speed cameras I think have all been turned off at present with the speeding being randomly checked by radar gun patrols.  If you remember although they are turned off the speed cameras are in a speed controlled zone i.e. 80 or 60 kph it would not surprise me to find lurking in the background randomly the MPF with the speed gun to try and catch drivers out who think because the camera is off they can exceed the 60 or 80 kph and wont get caught. 

You do not get caught speeding if you obey the speed limits !!!!!!

A good to know when you get involved in an accident:
The paper you have to fill after the accident is an agreement (written on top). So if you sign your version of the accident you also sign the version of the other side. So if they write the total contrary of yours it is your voice against them and I fear there is not much to be done anymore.
Unfortunately I tripped into this having a dump truck scratching my whole side from the back to the front. I told them they are at fault and should write it like this. They said its not necessary the insurances will settle this amongst them...with great help of the policeman at the policestation (who agreed to what they said - I guess to save him from extra work at 6pm).
So if you have their statement against yours and you are sure they are at fault, go to open a police case.

Another tip - watch out at roundabouts esp on the motorway - people seem to wander all over the lanes to tackle it ie: left lane on approach - inside lane actually on the roundabout (or they just go straight over it ) then back to left lane after the roundabout - serious lack of spatial awareness!!!!

That's not because of a lack of spatial awareness, it's because it's too much effort to turn the steering wheel left and then right, then left again.