Three converging road users on a narrow laterite climb near Bamenda
You are driving a loaded pick-up up a narrow laterite road in the hills north of Bamenda, at about 17:20 in the dry season. The surface is rutted, with a loose gravel crown down the middle, and there is a drop of roughly 40 metres on your left with no barrier. The gradient is about 12% and the road is barely two vehicles wide. Ahead, the road bends left around a spur so you cannot see beyond about 50 metres. A loaded timber lorry is coming down towards you and is already close to the centre line. Behind the lorry, a moto-taxi with two passengers has pulled out and is overtaking it, straight into your path on your side of the road. On your right, a track from a quarry joins the road, and a small tipper is nosing out of it. Your pick-up is in second gear at about 25 km/h and the engine is pulling well.
1. Three other road users are converging on you. Rank who should give way to whom and justify each decision.
Read the worked answer
Three different rules apply, and they must be applied separately.
(a) The moto-taxi. Overtaking on a blind bend with restricted visibility, into the opposing lane, is a straightforward fault. He has no priority at all and must return to his side. But priority will not protect you if he does not, so you plan as though he will keep coming.
(b) The descending timber lorry. On a narrow gradient where two loaded vehicles cannot easily pass, the descending vehicle should give way to the ascending one, because the uphill vehicle has far less ability to restart on a 12% loose slope. He is also already crowding the centre, so expect him to keep his line rather than correct it.
(c) The tipper leaving the quarry track. The priority-to-the-right rule governs ordinary unmarked junctions between public roads. It does not apply to a vehicle leaving a private track, yard or quarry: that driver must give way to everything already on the public road, whatever his position. So the tipper yields to you and to the lorry.
Net order: the tipper yields to you and to the lorry; the lorry should make room for you; the moto must give way to everybody. You still drive as if only your own brakes are guaranteed.
2. What do you do in the next ten seconds - speed, gear, line and signals?
Read the worked answer
Brake now, while still straight. Smooth, progressive pressure, not a stab: the gravel crown will break traction and the ruts will pull the wheel.
Change down to first. That gives you engine braking and immediate response, and it removes any temptation to coast with the clutch in.
Keep to the inland side - your right - but leave just enough room for the tipper to sit without being forced into you. Never swing left towards the unprotected drop to make space for the moto: you would be trading a dent for a 40-metre fall.
Give one short horn warning to the moto-taxi. On a blind laterite bend this is the case where the horn earns its keep, because he cannot see you and may not have looked. Do not hold it down; a long blast tells him nothing except that you are angry.
Reduce to a speed from which you can stop inside the distance you can see to be clear. If he keeps coming, stop. A stationary vehicle on its own side of the road is the strongest position, legally and physically, that you can be in.
3. A colleague says the moto-taxi has no right to be there, so you should hold your line and speed. Explain why that reasoning is unsafe and what you would actually commit to.
Read the worked answer
'He had no right to be there' is a true statement and a useless plan. Priority allocates blame after the event; it does not create space. On a road with a 40-metre drop, no barrier and a blind bend, the defensive driver's question is never 'who is right?' but 'what is the cheapest way out of this?'.
Cheap outcomes: a stopped pick-up, a scraped bank, a broken mirror. Expensive outcome: a swerve to the left. At 25 km/h on loose laterite, braking distance is longer than on tarmac, and steering while braking is limited, so the decision has to be made early rather than in the last 15 metres.
What I commit to: brake straight, change down, hold the inland wheel track, accept that the tipper has to wait, and stop if the moto keeps coming. If the moto does pass and the lorry then needs room, I stay stopped and let the lorry come past with its wheels close to the bank; I do not creep forward into the gap to save thirty seconds. Losing face with a colleague is cheaper than losing the vehicle.