18001

On just about every MTN official car, the inscription behind reads "In case of careless driving call 18001".

On my way home from work one evening, I'd just passed the Cal Bank and was headed down the Liberation road (hope that's what it's called) when just out of this MTN yard (don't know what to call it but I always see MTN pick ups coming out from that side plus the walls are all decorated with MTN ads) I saw this MTN pick up stick it's head out. Now since my speed was somewhere around 80 and I was so close, I assumed the driver of the car would not make a move to join the road, but how wrong I was.

The smart driver joined the road and I was going too fast to slow down enough or stop so I had to swerve into the next lane. If there'd been another car in that lane then both of us would have been goners. The usual me would have chased this guy, caught up with him and given him a peace of my mind but I relaxed, took down his car number with the intention of calling 18001 (cos that incident definitely counted as careless driving) and venting.

On my first couple of tries that very evening, I just kept hearing the phone was off or unavailable or something. I tried again a couple of days later and this time the phone rang but no one picked up. What I'd like to know is why does MTN have that number at the back of their cars if the phone is going to be off or if no one's going to pick up? Really? What's the point? Why pretend to be concerned about the driving abilities of their drivers when really they are not?