Busy Delarey corner a dark trap for unsuspecting motorists

The absence of signage is creating a hazard for motorists and residents.

When driving up Long Street from Newlands toward Delarey, a little caution is given to an otherwise innocuous bend. The 45-degree right-hand kink has existed for decades but accidents are seemingly becoming more frequent. Few incidents occur during the day but residents living on the bend claim that the night and early hours of the morning bring the noise of broken metal and glass.

Eugene Otto has lived in the house in the middle of the fork his whole life and relays how the road once ran straight. This is evident by the road on the other side of an island installed in the 90s still being named Long Road. The island was created to direct traffic up Mollie Road from where it meets Long Road and is now the main road running through the suburb.

“There is no stop street coming up the road and because of the streetlights on the other side people think the road is straight,” illustrates Eugene.

A vehicle crashed through Eugene’s wall in March removing a large section of the barriers and neighbours report frequent accidents, one even having a vehicle land in the lounge of a home a few houses from the intersection. The latest trend has seen as many as four delivery scooters careening over the island in recent weeks, with tenant Michelle Baker describing a scene where boxes of pizza were strewn out along the asphalt outside the house.

Vehicles travel unrestricted coming up Long Road but stopping is required when coming down Mollie Road at the intersections of 16th and 17th Streets. The residents have pleaded to place a stop sign at the intersection or at the very least replace the chevrons and barriers that were in place. Eugene tried to assist by placing his own chevrons on his wall but they quickly went missing.

“The process to obtain a new supplier for traffic signs is underway. Once finalised the depot will replace the missing and broken signage, and install guardrails where required. Most of the road signage is either stolen for steel or metal components and traded at street value. While in other cases Johannesburg Roads Agency’s (JRA) signage, including stop signs, street name poles and guardrails, are knocked over and damaged by speeding drivers,” stated Kelebogile Mafa, media liaison at JRA.

The road entity has had widespread budget shortfalls this financial year and the cost of driver bevahiour mounts.

“It roughly costs R4 950 for one guardrail with a 3.8 by 2.6-metre specification and R1 272 for one chevron sign, both left and right directions. The most affected infrastructure, which is also the most costly to replace is traffic signals. It can cost anything between R400 000 to R800 000 or even more, depending on the size of the intersection and how many units need to be replaced,” explained Kelebogile.

The curbs of the island are chipped and tyre-marked and the road on either side has scars from where vehicles have landed after vaulting the man-made patch of grass. Highlighting the velocity of one accident, Eugene retells how he needed to remove bricks from his pool after a vehicle pummeled the wall. One lone chevron does sit among the bushes nearest 17th Street but its reflective glare may be lost in the heady haze of the night.