I wasn't really allowed to post this until we got home because my lady-friend didn't want her mother to worry. Car accidents are crazay! (many times J had to go 55km up the highway to her project and there was not a day that she didn't see at best a truck with a broken axle and at worst a demolished bus).
In Tanzania theft is quite rare. If a thief is caught it is mob rules and they may very well be killed. If they are not killed, they might be killed by the police. If they are not killed by the police then they will be held in Africa's third worst prison system. So, that's the context for this next bit.
When you are in a car accident, all bets are off. A crowd will gather (the streets are always busy - people are not home watching tv or playing nintendo, the street is where the entertainment is. After the accident, people will take whatever they feel like from the car. Tires, luggage, anything. This seems quite contradictory given the outlook on theft yet it seems consistent with the mob rules antics.
Years ago my friend G got in an accident on Old Bagomoyo Road. Luckily he had a security contract at that time and called them right away. Within five minutes this company had arrived with men and cordoned off the area. They then had G fake an injury so he could be taken away in the ambulance and not have to deal with the popo (Mom - police).
While we were in Tanzania, our friend was in a taxi on the way to the airport when they got in an accident. When they started to gather their wits and the crowd started to gather theirs, they realized they might be in a very bad place (and miss their flight) so they kicked out a window, grabbed their luggage, and ran for another cab. I actually found out about this a couple of months after it happened because she didn't want her mother to find out via the blogs of her friends (just to be clear, it was not my lovely J that was in the accident).
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