When the sun sets, darkness gives way to creatures of the night. That doesn’t only include bats and other critters, but also drag racers, drug dealers, and drunk drivers.

With the highest murder rate in South Africa, and ninth in the world, Cape Town has some serious business going down in the shadows. Here’s just one example, thanks to Daily Maverick:

Last Friday night, on a dark road just north of Durbanville, an LDV collided head-on with a truck. The occupants in the truck survived; the driver in the LDV did not. His mangled body was flung from the vehicle and landed on a grass verge on the side of the road – beside two crucifixes from a previous accident. This is a reality that traffic police are confronted with on a daily basis – and one they are determined to curb.

Traffic accidents are a common occurrence on our roads, with more than 4 500 deaths every year. They are not always the fault of drunk drivers and often involved pedestrians, but there are people on a mission to make these spaces safer. The explanation continues, attached to the video below:

More than 4 500 people are killed on our roads every year. In Cape Town, a specialised unit of Cape Town Traffic Services known as the Ghost Squad has been tasked with making our roads safer. In this second episode of the web series Ridealong by Chronicle’s Shaun Swingler, we follow the Ghost Squad as they patrol the city’s streets in unmarked, high-performance cars while they attempt to reduce road deaths and serious traffic violations. As we saw earlier this year, traffic cops put their lives on the line each time they pull over an offending vehicle. The risks are just as great when chasing illegal street racers who have made a game out of evading traffic police.

It may sound like an episode of Squad Cars, but this drama is real.

The video contains graphic images, but maybe it is necessary to see the full extent of what is happening on our roads almost on a daily basis.

The Ridealong series is shot by Shaun Swingler, a multimedia journalist from Cape Town. The first episode of this series focused on drug dealers in the Cape Flats, following the Gang and Drug Task Team. Here’s the synopsis:

Rough hey? It’s great to see such journalism out of South Africa – not that it doesn’t happen – but a focused series makes it much more accessible than just one off short doccie you might miss.

[source: dailymaverick]