Want to beat the traps, avoid accident black spots and give hijackers a middle finger? The new Road Angel is an option - but does it have wings?
It became available in South Africa recently after being launched in Britain and some other countries, retails for about R4 500 and uses satellite navikgation and a database of GPS co-ordinates to warn of speed traps, accident hotspots, hijack zones - and schools.
The information is regularly updated and can be downloaded on to the device from a website.
It's oval, about the size of a cellphone and plugs into the car's 12-volt power socket or a cigarette lighter and sits on top of the fascia. It's sold as a road safety enhancer but some people believe it will make drivers reckless on the roads.
The perception is that the Road Angel will encourage faster driving by warning of speed-trap locations. That's not the case, however, as we found after using it for 10 days...
The unit, you see, makes no distinction between fixed traps and places where mobile speed traps are regularly found. Whether a trap is operating or not, it gives a shrill, piercing alarm and a male voice tells the driver: "Watch out!"
On a stretch of road such as the M1 between Johannesburg and Pretoria the wretched thing squawked every few minutes, whether I was exceeding the speed limit or not.
Between the Jan Smuts and the Centurion off-ramp the alarm went off 14 times - but in only in one case a trap in use.
It's so annoying you end up switching it off and sticking to the speed limit - or using commonsense to slow down under the bridges, where most speed traps lurk.
The Road Angel also has a laser detector that warns if a laser gun is lock on to your car but can't guarantee you won't be caught because the measuring time of a laser gun is less than a second.
One ponders its usefulness in a country where we should be alert at any intersection; if the alarm doesn't sound it could create a false sense of security. And do you really need a gadget to tell you to slow down when you're driving past a school?
Road Vigil, the company marketing the device in SA, says that in the UK drivers using the device cut their accident rate by half.
The question is, can you live with the irritation factor?
I can't help feeling that it's a lot of money to spend on a gadget that replaces common or garden brain power.
- The Road Angel is available directly from the importers at 0860-026-435 or through Autozone outlets. - Star Motoring