I REFUSED, at first, to watch that TikTok video clip where someone is seated in the driving seat of one of those lorries that normally ferries soil around Kampala city, explaining that they are designed in such a way that the brakes can not work.

My policy on social media videos and WhatsApp forwards is quite strict.

I try to avoid them till I am quite sure they are sensible, informative or funny without that silly laughter soundtrack whose originator deserves capital punishment.

I underwent some mental anguish as a child in the 1980s when we had people circulating silly letters instructing you to copy their contents and forward them or else you would be cursed. 

They were called ‘Chain Letters’ because they triggered a chain of correspondence going down the line.

If you copied and forwarded them widely, the letters said, you would get blessings galore – more blessings for more copies sent out.

But if you ignored them then you would suffer various forms of torture, loss and damnation.

Internet research now tells us that these Chain Letters originated as far back as the 6th Century, in Europe (where else?) and have evolved over time with technology – hence the print versions my friends and I suffered with.

The early days of the internet also presented a version of them that required you to forward the letters by email.

Even as a child in the 1980s I figured out that it did not make sense.

I refused to comply even though many of my mates  then – and some of their parents – were neck deep in paperwork replicating those damn pieces of correspondence.

It was annoying, irritating and ridiculous all rolled into one. 

And yet not as much as today’s social media forwards, hence my policy.

In that video about the soil-carrying truck, the driver tells viewers in Luganda that he is “educating” them.

Translated into english: “This is the second type of vehicle I know that does not brake. It moves but you cannot apply the brakes fully. Drivers of this truck maintain space between the vehicles ahead of it because they know the brakes do not work. It was designed this way, so avoid overtaking these trucks and occupying that space reserved for slow braking.”

Now, there is a lot of painful evidence that makes this claim believable – but only if you don’t think too deeply into it and just believe that guy BECAUSE he had access to a phone to record his video and upload it onto a TikTok account.

The key message is for you, reckless driver, to avoid overtaking these trucks and to be risk averse on our roads here.

In reality, though, there is no way a truck manufacturer can design their vehicle so that the brakes do not work.

Why would they?

But because we cannot Be Serious about thinking such things through to the end, that video from a random expert went viral and caused a lot of conversation amongst even people with degrees that rely on scientific study.

Coincidentally, the day I eventually watched it I also read a rebuttal from a deservedly respected neighbour of mine, Sam Ssemanda.

The trucks, he said, carry heavy payloads but their operators are not always ‘educated’ or knowledgeable. 

“When loaded its gross weight is around 63 tons! Its momentum at a speed ‘s’ is so high that it can’t brake abruptly,” he explained.

The drivers, sadly, mostly operate the trucks as they would boda-bodas – which is not much different from the way the better heeled, ‘educated’ ‘elite’ do their own snazzy second-hand vehicles on our roads.

This is not about trucks and death on our roads. 

As a society we should not operate our mobile phones and internet access this foolishly otherwise we will continue to suffer mental health accidents. 

Not everybody with the ability to record a TikTok video is an expert at what they say; not everything you see on video is accurate, nor does it always make sense.

The political campaigns underscore this even more, without making it easier for us to separate the millet from the chaff.

It should be easy – using the same internet access and just a little bit of what some call common sense.

It should be easy to avoid mental health accidents, as well as road accidents due to those trucks.

We just need to operate our mobile phones and internet access with more care than those boda-boda riders drive those trucks with heavy payloads.