JAY Singh, a local resident and PR councillor for the United Independent Movement, has started a petition to address the rising number of accidents on the M7 highway.
The lack of law enforcement and the state of the highway, which is dotted with potholes, as well as the increasing traffic violations from drivers, and in particular, truck drivers, are just some of the issues being raised by Singh’s petition.
Another point of contention was the truck stop near the Bellville bridge off-ramp where trucks are supposed to stop and gear down going down the hill towards the N2.
Also read: Concern over M7 truck accidents
A high number of fatal accidents have occurred between the Belville Bridge and the N2 on- and off-ramps.
One of the fatalities was in January this year when Constable Nosipho Zuma, who was stationed at the Bellair Police Station, was killed when a truck ploughed into an accident scene she was attending to on the M7 highway.
“Our party holds a seat in council, and within that, I sit in the security and safety committee in council. Rather than approaching it as one person, I wanted a collection of voices. I felt it would be better to have residents add their concerns and voices to the petition as the M7 is a death trap.
“We already have 840 signatures to the petition with a target of a 1 000 signatures. Of concern is the rising number of accidents on the M7 highway as well as the high frequency of accidents, averaging one every other day, primarily due to increased truck traffic and traffic law violations by some drivers,” the Blundell Road resident said.
Also read: Security officer dies in M7 accident
“I also feel that there needs to be an increase in law enforcement presence on the M7. Perhaps there is a need to launch public awareness campaigns on safe driving as well as the need to conduct infrastructure assessments to identify necessary upgrades. Law enforcement is a significantly bigger problem, whether it’s metro police or RTI. I do feel the situation at the stop/start has to be enforced as trucks with a specific weight limit need to gear down when travelling down a hill, but on observation, several trucks drive straight through without stopping,” he said.
Singh added that he planned on taking the petition with some members of the community to a meeting with Colonel Siya Dlamini at Metro Queensburgh for further action.
Queensburgh News also reached out to the Department of Transport regarding the high frequency of accidents, however, at the time of going to print, there was no comment.
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