Illegal trucks weigh heavy on Umbilo

FOLLOWING the many complaints about trucks parking illegally in roads in Umbilo, a meeting was held between the eThekwini Transport Authority (eTA), Metro Police and the Ward 33 councillor last week.

Meeting in Teignmouth Road, where these trucks park every day, the group discussed the issue of missing sign boards and what needed to be done to prevent trucks from parking in the area.

“There has been a problem of trucks parking in this area for a while. The issue seems to be that the signs stating trucks over nine tons are not allowed on these roads are not in place any more. The area is zoned as residential and these trucks are not allowed to park on these roads,” said ward councillor, Nicole Graham.

At the meeting, Sbu Cele from eTA said he would request that signage be replaced in Umbilo Road to discourage trucks from driving up Hillier Road.

“It is easy to enforce signs and we will identify all entrances to the area. If possible, signage would be painted on the road,” he said.

Many articles have been written in Berea Mail regarding this issue over the past year, and resident, Bobby Lamont, said something needed to be done once and for all.

“Once again all our concerns, complaints, comments and proof of illegally-parked trucks in our area have fallen on deaf ears, and the situation has gotten progressively worse.

“At the end of December there was a serious diesel spillage in Teignmouth Road (again), with petrol and chemical transporters parked in the vicinity of the spillage, which could have lead to a catastrophic chain of events,” he said.

Lamont said he contacted the Roads Department and was extremely impressed with their speedy response.

“A senior roads official, Khanyisani Sibisi, arrived at the scene within 20 minutes to assess the situation and was concerned about the safety hazard.

“His team arrived shortly to clean up the mess, a job well done. Subsequently we have experienced a further two fuel spillages, one cannot open one’s front door because of the overwhelming stench of fumes wafting through the property,” he said.

Lamont said, while driving into Hillier Road last week, he saw a Metro vehicle parked at the side of the road and enquired as to when they would be handing out traffic fines to the six heavy duty trucks parked opposite them.

“Their answer was, ‘Why?'” said Lamont.

Morgan Subramoney from Metro Police said the problem is that there is no truck stop in Durban and trucks were stopping in the area to go to the shops, bathrooms, et cetera.

He said once signage was erected, Metro would do irregular patrols to conduct enforcement.