We must all improve our behaviour on our roads
In the three consecutive days, the Fourways area alone saw three major collisions.
Collisions on our roads are common, but during this past week, they really rocked Joburg’s northern suburbs.
In the three consecutive days, the Fourways area alone saw three major collisions. The news of the first, spread rapidly throughout our communities last Monday night: Two Metro police officers lost their lives when a motorist ploughed through a Metro police roadblock on Witkoppen Road in Paulshof.
The next day, the Section 79 Public Safety chairperson, Hilton Masera, in a media statement, put into perspective how the loss of these officers affects the City. “In the near future, it will take three years to recruit, select, train and appoint JMPD officers, and as this is a lengthy process, losing just one officer is not only an immense loss to a family but also a setback in the City’s continuity and sustainability going forward.”
Throughout the week, there was a push for the need for accountability. The City’s Executive Mayor, Herman Mashaba, at the wreath-laying ceremony for the Metro police officers, said, “It is only by holding offenders to account that we will be able to turn things around.”
But alongside the need for accountability is consideration of driver behaviour. As Masera put it, “Joburg can be a safer city if all motorists play an active role in being responsible for their behaviour on the City’s roads; and moreover are accountable for their transgressions.”
Future City Fourways on Facebook appealed to all road users to ‘please drive with far better care and attention and to avoid excessive speed and road rage’.
Driver behaviour was also considered recently at a meeting held to discuss the collisions on Summit Road in the Midrand and Diepsloot areas, as representatives of the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport explained that measures like traffic signals at intersections ‘may not work due to [negative] driver habits’.
It’s positive to see an open dialogue on road issues, and, as Anton van Niekerk of the Greater Kyalami Conservancy, which organised the meeting, said, “The best thing is for us to work together as a team to try and resolve the issues.”
He’s right. It’s in the interest of our communities to work together in a bid to make our roads safer – not only in uniting to discuss road issues, but to ensure we, community members, improve our behaviour on the roads every time we travel, while the local authorities enforce the law and hold traffic offenders accountable.
You can share your thoughts with me at daniellap@caxton.co.za
