Horror hole in Hellet Road
The resident says the deep pothole was bound to be the cause of “something big”
For the past four months, the Mungru family of Hellet Road has been growing increasingly anxious about a widening pothole in their busy street. As one the main entrances to the CBD, traffic in Hellet Road is frenetic. Peak times are mornings, afternoon school-runs and after-work commuters; and the family knew that the pothole was going to cause trouble.
As diligent residents, they reported the ‘crater’ to a municipal official, hoping for prompt action. The pothole has surfaced due to an underground water leak, and there is a non-operational street light directly overhead. However, no prompt action materialised and the family’s ‘worst case scenario’ came true on Thursday.
“We are now familiar with the ‘bang’ sound, especially when trucks go into the pothole,” said Viren Mungru. “At about 21:00, we heard a loud bang, then a terrible screeching sound and then another bang. We rushed outside and saw that a vehicle had overturned right at our gate. Imagine our horror when we saw two young girls crawling out of the wrecked vehicle. Fortunately, they said they were not seriously injured, but it was clear that they were in shock,” he explained.
He ascertained that the vehicle, which was travelling from town, was snagged by the pothole – its depth and size deceptively masked by the pool of water inside.
“It seems like the right tyre jammed and the car flipped over. When an ambulance, the police and traffic cops arrived, we told them that the incident was due to the pothole. The next morning, a truck was sent out, but I was told that uThukela District Municipality would have to repair the water pipe before the pothole is repaired,” said Viren.
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During the past two weeks, Viren says he has witnessed eight motorists damage their tyres or rims after driving into the large pothole.
“It’s so sad because you see people lined up in the road, changing their tyres or trying to straighten their rims with stones they find at the roadside. Out-of-town vehicles also use this road and the drivers, unfamiliar with the territory, drive straight into the pothole. Something big is going to happen if this pothole is not fixed soon,” he concluded.
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