Motorist taken to hospital after driving into a hole
GREYMONT – MMC and City services investigating long-existing reinstatements.
What many feared would happen, finally occurred on the evening of March 8 when a senior citizen drove his car into a massive, uncovered reinstatement along Long Road.
According to Ward 86 councillor Chantelle Fourie-Shawe, due to poor visibility and markings of the opening, the man drove his car into the hole and needed medical attention afterwards. Fortunately, he only sustained minor injuries.
Residents and motorists have been begging for months for this issue to be attended to. Fourie-Shawe said, “This matter of the reinstatement is slightly unique as the pipe had a recurring leaking which Johannesburg Water had been dealing with for a while. It could not be closed as the leak was not resolved and was kept that way until Joburg Water knew it was fixed for good.”
According to the councillor, she did receive a notification from Joburg Water that the piping had been fixed a week prior to the accident but reinstatement was still to be done.
Fourie-Shawe said the problem of potholes and reinstatements around her ward mirrored what is happening around the region and the City. She added that Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA), who is responsible for attending to such, has a backlog of around 6 000 reinstatements and is working on reducing this. “In the months prior, Joburg Water and City Power were using their own contractors to cover up the road after fixing whatever they were attending to but that was stopped. The JRA has decided to give the go-ahead for them to use their contractors to help clear the backlog.”
The councillor was happy to see that Joburg Water and JRA are working on the matter and that the incident has brought attention to potholes and reinstatements in the ward. Long Road has been challenged with long-dated road issues which urgently need repairing.
She said MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Service Department Michael Sun had requested a report from the involved entities on the reinstatement that caused the accident. Fourie-Shawe concluded, “This should have been handled differently. We need to be able to divert resources to deal with such [things] fast so we can avoid dangerous situations.”
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