JMPD officer faces the music after crashing state car into a tree

A Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) officer who rammed a state car into a tree during morning traffic in Florida two months ago is facing an internal disciplinary action.

The female officer will soon appear before the JMPD accident review board, which looks into cases involving preventable accidents by officers.

With no sirens or blue lights on, the officer sped down the road just after 8am, headed towards a stop sign at the corner of Albertina Sisulu Road and 8th Avenue, just after resident Graham Johnson’s home.

The vehicle turned around somehow a few metres from the stop sign and hit a tree outside Johnson’s house. The long palm tree leaned over the electric fence, having fallen down in the seemingly powerful impact.

So severe was the crash that JMPD deemed the vehicle beyond repair.

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At the crash scene, the sedan was discovered to have two different licence numbers. The licence on the disc HP92TNGP, was not the same as the one on the licence plate, which was JF34WZGP. Upon arrival, officers scraped off the disc using a pocket knife after Johnson pointed out the anomaly.

According to JMPD spokesperson Xolani Fihla, service provider Glass Girlz SA fitted the vehicle with a wrong windscreen when it was brought in for windscreen replacement.

“The service provider has admitted that when they replaced the windscreen, they mistakenly swapped the JMPD patrol vehicles’ licence disc with a disc of a private vehicle which does not belong to the metro police, and they also acknowledged that both vehicles’ windscreens were fixed on the same day.

“The licence disc was removed by officers from the patrol vehicle for the purpose of investigation and discontinuing the vehicle. The matter was amicably resolved with the service provider.”

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Fihla would not disclose the officer’s name.

“We feel that we can’t disclose the officers name, unless there’s a reasonable explanation to do. For one, the JMPD hasn’t received a formal complaint regarding the accident and the matter is still under internal investigation as to what caused the accident.

“Once that has been determined and appeared at the JMPD Accident Review Board for a disciplinary hearing, the appropriate sanctions will be placed,” he said.

Meanwhile, Johnson says JMPD did not bother to have the damaged site of his electric fence fixed. After laying a complaint and detailing the damage, he was told he would receive a case number and that the case would be investigated.

“It’s been three months and I’ve never received the case number. I decided to fix the damaged wire myself after I was told that JMPD was not liable because the accident happened on a municipal space outside my home.

“I didn’t care about the tree, I just wanted them to acknowledge that their member caused a bit of damage to my electric fence and have it fixed, but they wouldn’t play ball.”

Video clips from his security cameras showed the haphazard driving by motorists heading towards the stop sign near his house.

Motorists ignore the stop sign, speeding past. In one clip, a sedan is seen slamming into a delivery vehicle after the latter failed to stop at the Albertina Sisulu Road and 8th Avenue intersection.

Johnson said homeowners around the block have decided to petition the Joburg Roads Agency (JRA) to erect speed humps along the busy Albertina Sisulu Road.

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