SUPERSTITION may be partly to blame for the shocking rate of fatal road accidents in South Africa, where there are 10 times as many deaths for a given driving distance as in the US.
Karl Peltzer of the University of the North in Sovenga says that many South African drivers share deep-rooted beliefs in the supernatural, thinking accidents result from witchcraft, for instance, or that medicines can prevent them. With Walter Renner of the University of Klagenfurt in Austria, he compared minibus accident rates with levels of superstition in 130 male drivers; minibuses are a common form of public transport…
