Anybody out there listening?

Leopold Bosch from Florida Park writes:

My frustration with the unwillingness of the local authorities to assume responsibility for a problem that has at this stage caused a number of fatal accidents is reaching boiling point, and I am directing this letter to you in the vain hope that someone in authority can stand up and say enough is enough.

I am referring to the the steep downhill section of William Nicol from Ontdekkers Road in a northerly direction beyond Flora Clinic and Hyperama Shopping Centre, up to where it reaches the commencement of 14th avenue.

Over the past few years, heavily laden trucks of which the brakes have failed (or so it is purported) moving downhill, have slammed into unsuspecting road users lower down, and a number of lives of innocent passengers and occupants have already been lost. A year or so ago, following the last major accident opposite the Oncology Unit of Flora Clinic, the authorities erected an inconspicuous sign as consolation prize prohibiting heavy vehicles from accessing William Nicol out of Ontdekkers Road, but all to no avail – heavy vehicles are not being alerted to this sign or simply ignore it, and are still using the northbound section of William Nicol out of Ontdekkers Road, causing havoc and destruction along the road as has happened as recently as the first week of June.

I have personally spent days on the phone trying to contact the appropriate authorities (JMPD, JRA, and being sent from pillar to post), but the buck is being passed from one department to the next, and no one is prepared to assume any responsibility. My question is: how many many lives must still be sacrificed unnecessarily, and how much damage to other vehicles must still be done, before this section of road is handled as a priority, properly cordoned off and policed properly?

We as citizens of Roodepoort are not used to a culture of protesting, burning tyres and destroying property to make our voices heard, but has the taxpayer in this city of ours simply became useful idiots who are only placated when there are elections in the offing?

Is someone out there listening?