ALBERTON – and in fact the whole of Ekurhuleni and Gauteng – has been plagued by accidents over the past few weeks.
In the last week alone, the Alberton area has seen a multitude of accidents, including multi-car pile-ups, overturned trucks and injured pedestrians.
The RECORD contacted the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department to find out if they could give us actual statistics on the number of accidents, specifically in the immediate area.
Lieutenant Colonel Kobeli Mokheseng, acting EMPD spokesperson, said this would be extremely difficult to do, but he was able to give us a breakdown of the accidents that resulted in fatalities in the various regions of Ekurhuleni, as follows:
Between Monday, January 23 and Monday January 30, there were four fatalities. On Tuesday, January 24, a male pedestrian running across the roadway died after he was knocked over by a sedan in the Boksburg area, at the corner of Barry Marais and Kingfisher Road.
READ: Overturned truck blocks R59
On Sunday January 29, a male passenger died after the driver of the sedan he was travelling in lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a lamp post in the Alberton area, on the N12 East at the Reading interchange.
On the same day, in the Boksburg area, two male pedestrians (who were pushing their broken-down vehicle to a safe place) died after they were knocked over by a sedan.
On Monday January 30, in the Windmill Park area, on Barry Marais between Rondebult and Morena, two sedans collided head-on and a male driver died.
READ: Truck causes devastation on N12
“There are a few factors leading or contributing to accidents/crashes and Mother Nature (heavy rain) is no exception,” said Mokheseng. “Sometimes, as drivers eager to meet deadlines, we constrain our fatigued bodies to perform to the fullest, while they need to be in rest mode. It is wrong and we are aware of the consequences, but we drive a long distance when we are very tired, we drive while intoxicated, we drive faster in order to beat time, we still drive even when we are distracted and we also drive when we are not supposed to (under-age or with our driver’s licence suspended) and at the end of the day, either human or mechanical error played a role,” he said.
Also Read: Accident claims two lives
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