WITH the devastating loss this past weekend of Rod Petersen, his wife, 11-year-old son, 5-year-old daughter, and two other children travelling home from church, the death toll on KZN roads continues to increase.
The MEC for Transport says a thorough investigation will be carried out. I am sorry, but it is time to stop talking about doing something, it is time the MEC, the RTI and our traffic police actually DO something about the carnage on our roads.
On a daily basis in my commute from Empangeni to Richards Bay I see speed traps and road blocks. What I do not see at these road blocks are trucks and buses being pulled off to carry out safety checks.
Why not? I challenge RTI to provide verifiable statistics on how many trucks are stopped monthly on the John Ross Highway for safety and licence checks.
What I have personally witnessed are traffic officers driving vehicles with seats reclined back ‘gangsta’ style, not wearing seat belts.
Only two days after the beggar Raymond was killed at the 5 Ways Mall robot intersection, I personally witnessed a traffic officer sitting in his Nissan Almera next to the woman who stands begging at this exact same intersection, doing absolutely nothing.
It is illegal to stand at intersections begging and it is unsafe.
When I hooted and challenged the two traffic officers at the Central Park robot for not wearing their seatbelts they waved me off irritably and then proceeded to put on their blue lights in order to drive off through a red robot, and once through the robot, turned off their lights again and carried on driving leisurely, whilst wearing no seatbelts.
Not to mention the times I have watched trucks blow through red robots while a traffic officer sits in his vehicle at the intersection and does nothing.
Mr MEC, we need to stop this carnage on our roads with traffic officials leading the way by applying the letter of the law, set an example and proceed to do the job they are paid to do by clamping down on ALL motoring transgressions and violations.
Until this happens we will continue to hear weekly of yet another family wiped out because of the negligence of truck drivers.
S SMITH
