Welcome to ‘trucker town’
''We are intensifying our enforcement on HMV (heavy motor vehicles) and we are performing weighbridge operations. We are monitoring trucks on a daily basis.''
A few weeks ago, a truck driver crashed head-on into a bakkie between Pongola and Piet Retief, claiming 20 lives. 18 of the deceased were schoolchildren.
A few days later, another crash shook the country to its knees when a truck caused a secondary accident after careening into the first accident scene. This caused four vehicles to burst into flames. After these horrific crashes, the Pongola community has taken a stand against the influx of trucks using that road. They claim that truck drivers have a disregard for human life. This has resulted in the community not letting any trucks onto the N2, so truck drivers have to make use of alternative routes.
One of these routes is a thoroughfare through Vryheid. Currently, on the bypass from Lakeside Crossing to the Junction, trucks are queuing to make their way to and from Richards Bay. Vryheid residents say this is an accident waiting to happen, since both those crossings are well-known for reckless driving and skipping the stop sign. This has seen multiple accidents and lives lost in the past.
At one stage, trucks were using residential roads through town, which also had people up-in-arms, since the town’s roads are already in a terrible condition. This also caused a serious bottleneck of traffic in town. On Monday, a local community traffic group posted about reliable information received that the N2 will continue to be closed for trucks. According to this information, a meeting concerning the way forward was held on Tuesday.
Vryheid RTI commented that “we are definitely coming down on trucks as we enhance enforcement of road rules. We are intensifying our enforcement on HMV (heavy motor vehicles) and we are performing weighbridge operations. We are monitoring trucks on a daily basis.”
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