Shiven Singh: "The only way to stop these kind of things is if the Metro Police do their job and implement strategies to reduce this. We are citizens. They are the metro cops. We cannot do their job as well. As it is we have to have CPF in areas because the saps are incompetent."
THE M7 highway, which runs from the Bluff to Pinetown, through the Queensburgh area, has been described as a “death trap” due to it being the scene of so many serious motor vehicle accidents.
Last month the Queensburgh News ran a story about a truck driver who was ejected from his cab as a result of an accident on the road and walked away from the scene with only minor injuries. (Page 7, Queensbrugh News, 28 February).
Many others have not been as lucky. Almost daily there are reports of serious accidents on the road which runs between the Bluff in the east and Pinetown in the west.
Just last week a young boy lost his life following an accident at the intersection near Southway Mall, adding to the mounting number of deaths in 2020 on the road.
The Queensburgh News Facebook page shared the update about the child’s death on Tuesday last week (3 March) asking readers for their comments and opinions on what is causing the high level of accidents and fatalities with the #QueensburghChatBack and #HaveYourSay hashtags we use to encourage discussion.
Here are some of the comments shared in the paper as well as others that there wasn’t space for in the print version of this story:
Toya Parker Georgicopoulos: “I am NOT blaming the victims.,, but the situation begs the questions: Do we know who had right of way? Was the child wearing a seat belt? Condolences to the family, no one should bury their child.”
Colleen Wittrup: “The trucks do not even stop at the stop signs under the bellville bridge let alone drive slow down that hill. Its shocking and absolutely no vigilance from Metro.”
Courtney Jade Noton: “Not just trucks and idiot drivers. On a daily basis, almost every person I drive past is on their damn cellphone! If you’re typing messages while you’re driving, how are you being safe? You look down at your precious phone screen, don’t pay attention to the road in front of you, and cause an accident. People that do this don’t just mess up their life, they mess around with other people’s lives too! If you are one of those people that sit on your phone while driving, you
Sharon Demmer: “Transporting heavy large loads should go back to being transported by rail. The truck company owners only worry about money and business. A big noise gets made when a new accident happens or someone is killed and then we all go back to our lives until the next one.”
Maureen Elaine Powdrell: “One lane only for trucks, put more speed cameras up. Trucks take up too many lanes. Police should be doing daily checks. M7 needs a good cleaning up, bush is over grown. Fix pot holes, drainage needs to be in place as well.”
Tayyiba Saunders: “The traffic signals needs to be moved further apart ….very common accident spot always involving trucks and way too many lives lost due to reckless driving.”
Antoinette Venter: “I travel that road almost daily and it’s extremely scary, as trucks do not half the time stop at those particular robots (that goes both ways), as they start to pick up speed from South Coast road and drive at a frantic speed, and although the robots has already started changing they race through with no consideration for any road users. I always make sure that both directions have come to a complete stand still before I even think to cross that intersection. RIP little man,
Savanna Opperman: “There are always accidents along that M7 both directions, more so because I’ve witnessed drivers jumping those robots by the Southway mall intersection where a car went airborne, another one I witnessed under the N2 bridge cars flying around there like its nothing. I hope a solution can be put in place for the M7, as both intersections already have cameras there, don’t know if they are currently working or not though. Sad that so many lives are lost on our roads.”
Ingrid Moffett: “I think that we all need to drive more responsibly on the roads and follow the rules of the road!”
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