Rumble strips obsession has to stop

There is a growing obsession with rumble strips or what others call rumble surfaces on the country’s roads.

Take, for instance, the Blantyre-Zomba Road, it is just a matter of time before the whole road is inundated with rumble strips and ramps. 

Rumble strips are supposed to warn motorists to reduce speed, especially in busy places such as trading centres. They are also effective in alerting drowsy or distracted drivers.

However, these rumble strips have become a huge risk to motorists because oftentimes they are done without prior warning to road users. Those constructing the strips often fail to put up signposts to warn road users of what lies ahead, and this has resulted in some fatal road accidents.

It is true that some motorists can be reckless by, among other things, not observing speed limits, but that should not be the reason to inundate the road with rumble strips and ramps without warning.

When they put up the rumble strips at Walala on the Blantyre-Zomba Road, I witnessed a truck overturning because the driver realised too late that there were rumble strips and rumps. There were no markings and no sign. Even those who travel on this road on a daily basis only realised that in the morning that there were rumble strips and ramps—probably they were constructed during the night.

There is also concern over the inconsistency with which these rumble strips are constructed. There are some that are quite thin and close together while others are too thick, wide apart and quite rough, they risk bursting tyres. Let there be sanity and standards in constructing them.

To be quite honest, if these rumble strips are at all going to serve the intended purpose, it would be best to warn road users to avoid the rumble strips becoming death traps.

Besides, I need to be school if these rumbles surfaces do not pose danger to lives of cars, given the shaking cars are subjected to even when going past the surfaces at the lowest speed. There, certainly must be some amount of damage happening to the car. May be engineers can tell the story better.