LOCAL resident, Brett van der Merwe is frustrated after his application for speed humps on Clarence Road was declined again.
Van der Merwe said the road has been an accident hotspot for a long time and it makes no sense why the city is refusing to install speed humps.
“There’s a lot of cars on the sides here which creates a lot of blindspots plus cars come speeding down at breakneck speed which causes a lot of accidents,” he said. Van der Merwe who lives on a nearby complex, overlooking Clarence Road said there is at least one car accident every two months. “It usually happens around 4pm because a lot of people knock off and their first stop is at the Spar,” he said.
Van der Merwe said he was also involved in his own accident in 2014. He said a woman driver trying to drive across was knocked by a car coming from the north side. Her car subsequently crashed into his.
Fortunately, Van der Merwe said, he escaped the accident with no serious injuries.
Following a recent accident last month, Van der Merwe emailed the eThekwini Municipality’s roads department again over the possibility of speed humps.
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“Clarence Road, Essenwood is a class 4v high order road. In terms of the Council approved Traffic Calming policy, a warrant must be undertaken to determine if speed humps can be supported,” read the response from eThekwini Transport Authority (ETA).
“Clarence Road did not meet the warrant, as such the request for implementation of speed humps will not be supported.”
ETA said the city’s roads are monitored on an annual basis to determine the need for traffic calming.
According to Google Maps, there is about 400 metres of steep road on Clarence Road between the Currie Road intersection and the speed humps near the Little Noddy Pre-school.
Berea police said they could not provide statistics on the number of car accidents that have occured along Clarence Road.
“Because of the volume of cars that frequent that area, either passing through or stopping to do shopping, there are a number of car accidents in that area according to my accident department. The accidents in almost most of the cases are just minor damages to both vehicles,” said Capt Poobalan Naidoo from Berea SAPS.
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