The Reasonable Man
The reasonable man “is not a timorous faint-heart always in trepidation least he or others suffers some injury; on the contrary, he ventures into the world, engages in affairs and takes reasonable chances. He takes reasonable precaution to protect his person an property and expect others to do likewise.”
(Herschel v Mrupe 1954 (3) SA 464(A)
To apply an abstract objective test to the conduct of a pedestrian suffering from deafness or blindness would be manifestly unfair and absurd. The conduct of such a person should be judged by the standard of care to be expected of a reasonable prudent person suffering from such a handicap.
The reasonable man test, in the case of children, is applied for determining whether a child who is culpa cap-ax, was negligent.
A motor vehicle is potentially dangerous machine and driving one damands a substantial degree of skill and experience. An ordinary driver is not expected to have the expertise and the reflexes of a racing driver, though he is required to display such skill, courage, composure and judgement to enable him to cope with the dangerous situations he is rightly to encounter while driving, in order to prevent an accident.
The three main prerequisites for safe driving are that
(a) the driver must be proficient
(b) he must have proper control over his vehicle and
(c) the vehicle must be roadworthy.