Municipality investigates road works
A motorist damaged his car when he drove into a drum which was placed around a road work site recently.
A RESIDENT of Bartle Road was shocked by an accident by his home recently, when a motorist collided with a steel drum in the middle of the road.
According to the resident, the man was on his way to work when he drove into the drum, which he said had been placed in the road to alert drivers to road works.
“The municipality had been doing road works and there was a gaping hole in the middle of the road at the intersection of Bartle Road and Cavell Place. There was a ridiculous attempt to outline the hole with a ring of barrels and red and white tape. However, the barrels were dark green and grey and there was no way of seeing them at night as the tape was hardly visible at all. I am sure the man had extensive damage to his car as the drum was stuck underneath the front of the car. He was also visibly shaken as he really had not seen the barrel which was too dark to see at all,” he said.
He said this was not the only collision he had heard, and that there was resultant rubble and boulders scattered across the intersection which caused traffic to slow and cross from one lane to the turning lane for Cavell Place.
“Motorists behind could not see the roadworks ahead. There were no signs whatsoever. I want to know why the proper procedures had been bypassed, whether it was to save money or whether contractors were just inept at doing what they were hired to do. Who is accountable – the municipality or the contractors?” he said.
eThekwini head of communications, Tozi Mthethwa, said: “The Municipality did not place the drum on the road. We sent an official to investigate and no drum was found on the site as reported. It is unclear why the drum was initially placed there. During the site inspection the Municipality also found that there was a patch with poor backfill material and poor compaction. A team was sent to the site to replace and compact the backfill material.”
