AFTER several accidents on Waterkant Road, stakeholders gathered to discuss safety measures to curb speeding on the busy road that is shared by motorists and cyclists. Ward 102 councillor, Rory Macpherson said speeding is an ongoing problem in the area.
“This year alone, we have had eight accidents on this road and we have been in a hard lockdown, so the number of cases has been reduced,” he said.
Ashok Harridaw, Chief Civil Engineering Technologist from the eThekwini Transport Authority said the use of a solid white line would prevent motorists overtaking on the road and guard rails would be installed to keep motorists from veering off the road.
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“We have found that guard rails have been effective in pushing an errant vehicle back onto the road way, rather than allowing them to go onto the opposing side of the roadway or into a property. “However, guard rails have to be installed at the right angle to be effective. If it’s installed at a 15 degree angle, it won’t be effective as the vehicle will hit the rail and summersault over it,” said Harridaw.
Guard rails are likely to be done by January next year, he said.
“Unfortunately Covid-19 has eaten into our budget and we’ve been asked to put some projects on hold. We will try and make sure it gets done quickly. It will be a high priority item,” added Harridaw.
Glen Ndlovu, Superintendant for Metro Police also attended the meeting. He said legal challenges prevented speed calming measures from being implemented.
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“We as the Metro police have a legal department that interrogates such issues but as it stands the speed timing and speed enforcement has been stopped due to a legal challenge that was raised in court,” he said.
Another issue raise was debris blocking the cycle paths.
“Some of the debris has been there for over a year,” said Ward 36 councillor, Shontel de Boer who attended the meeting.
Installing speed limit signs was discussed as another safety measure to deter speeding.
Harridaw said all residential roads have a 60km sped limit and speed signs are only erected when the speed limit is decreasing or increasing such as at an off ramp or onramp.
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