The Matatu at the Stage

Scenario. You are on Thika Road approaching a matatu stage. A matatu is stopped with its hazard lights on and people standing beside it. What is the developing hazard, and how do you respond?

The clues. Hazard lights; people at the roadside; a conductor at the door; perhaps another matatu slowing behind it to pull in. The stage itself is a static hazard. Everything around it is about to move.

What could happen. There are several developing hazards at once, which is why stages are so dangerous:

• Passengers step out without looking, often from the front of the matatu, straight into your lane. The Swedish Theory Book warns specifically about people running out from between buses. A stopped matatu hides whoever is about to step out from in front of it. The handbook's instruction when passing stationary vehicles applies: watch for opening doors and exiting passengers.
• People cross to or from the stage, from either side of the road.
• The matatu pulls off without indicating, straight back into your path.
• Another matatu cuts in across your lane to reach the stage.

What to do.

1. Ease off early and check your mirrors. You may need to move out, and you need to know what is behind and beside you.
2. Cover the brake.
3. Pass slowly and wide, with enough room for a person or an opening door. If there isn't room to do that because of oncoming traffic, wait behind it.
4. Watch its front corner, where pedestrians appear, and its front wheels, which move before the matatu does.

The mistake is to speed up and "get past before it moves". That puts you alongside the matatu at the exact moment someone steps out from in front of it.