Human Road Kill

I have no pictures for this blog, and it's quite a disturbing one (yes, worse than the baboon one), but I'm still going to post it.

This morning was the last day of my Cape to Addo tour so we started out around 5 am for our 6 hour drive back to Cape Town. I think I've written previously about the road conditions here and how crazy people drive. Pedestrians are the last of their worries. I'm not exactly sure how to convert kilometers to miles, but the average speed is around 130 kilometers/hour.

This morning we had been driving around half an hour when we came to flashing lights in the road. It was still dark, so we couldn't see much, but the police were guiding traffic around the side of the road and carrying on about their normal business. As we pass, I see something that looked rather large to be an animal laying in the middle of the road. As we get closer and the headlights highlight more of the road, I was able to make out a human leg and body, along with a separate leg over on the side of the road, and a lot of blood.
As a child, I don't think I ever really understood the meaning of 'smashed like a bug'. But, after seeing this man, I can totally understand what it means. The only thing not smashed was his head.

It was really depressing seeing this person, who was obviously homeless (he didn't have shoes or a jacket), smashed in the road without anybody really worrying about it. In the States, the police would at least cover the body or stop traffic from passing and viewing it. But, here it is such a common occurrence that they just motion traffic around and go on about their work.

When asking if it was a common occurance and why people didn't act shocked by it, the guide just laughed and said, "It's a different world here, lady."