Dead robot, temporary STOP board and a flagman who changes his mind
You are alone in a 1.4 hatchback, driving home at 17:45 on a winter evening. Load-shedding has knocked out the traffic signals at a busy four-way intersection in town. All four approaches have painted stop lines, but the paint on your lane is worn down to patches. As you approach, three controls are visible at once: the permanent robot above your lane is completely dark; a yellow-and-black temporary board on a trestle reads STOP and stands about 12 m before the faded line; and a roadworks flagman in an orange vest stands in the middle of the junction holding up a board that currently reads GO for the approach on your right. A bakkie on your right is already stopped at its line, first in the queue. Behind you a minibus taxi is closing fast, flashing its lights. The flagman turns, looks at you, and flips his board to STOP, then straight back to GO.
1. Your approach faces a dead traffic light, a temporary STOP board and a flagman currently showing GO. Which of these actually controls you, and how do the controls rank if they conflict?
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Rank them like this: (1) an officer's hand signals, (2) an authorised roadworks flagman, (3) temporary signs and markings placed for the works, (4) the permanent traffic signals, (5) permanent signs, (6) permanent road markings.
The logic is not ceremony - it is about who holds the most current information about the hazard. The flagman can see the trench, the plant and the queue that the signs cannot, so his instruction outranks the STOP board. The temporary board outranks the dark robot because it was placed for this specific disruption.
But note what he did: STOP then GO within two seconds is not an instruction, it is an ambiguity. When a control is unclear, the correct response is to hold position and not enter. Make eye contact and wait for a stable, unambiguous signal. If it stays confused, fall back to the underlying fact - the robot is dead, so the intersection behaves as an all-way stop and vehicles proceed in order of arrival.
2. Walk through, step by step, how you physically negotiate this intersection with a bakkie stopped on your right and a taxi crowding you from behind.
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- Check the mirror early, then brake in three progressive applications rather than one late stab. The taxi behind needs to see red lights and read your speed dropping, not discover it.
- Stop where you are visible and where the flagman can see you - at or just before the stop line, not 12 m back where the board sits, unless the line falls inside the works area.
- Handbrake on, wheels straight, foot ready to move. Do not creep while the signal is in doubt.
- Apply the arrival rule: the bakkie stopped first, so the bakkie goes first. If you both arrived together and neither is clearly first, give way to your right - and confirm it with a wave rather than assuming.
- Creep-and-peek before committing. If the bakkie or plant blocks your view of the far side, edge forward slowly to build a sight line, checking for pedestrians and cyclists who ignore flagmen entirely.
- Move only on a stable GO, and clear the junction promptly once you have it.
3. The taxi driver hoots, pulls out and drives through behind the flagman's back. What do you do, and why is 'he went, so I can go' wrong?
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You stay stopped. Another driver's decision creates no lawful priority for you and no safety for you - it only removes him from the scene and leaves you as the next vehicle in a junction the flagman is not currently releasing.
Watch his path rather than his bumper. If he stalls or is struck mid-junction, you want a gap of road in front of you so you are not part of the wreck. If there is room, sit slightly further back, not closer to the box.
Why the reasoning is wrong: entering on someone else's slipstream means you cross a lane the flagman still believes is held, with a plant operator or a worker who has only checked the taxi. The classic collision is the second vehicle, because the first vehicle is what everyone was watching. Pressure from a hooter, a flashing light or a bystander's opinion is not an authority in the hierarchy of controls - only the officer, the flagman, the temporary signs and the signals are.