The municipality is taking steps in making OR Tambo Road safer.
According to Mr Kingdom Mabuza, municipal spokesperson, the municipality is opting for mobile cameras which will be manned by traffic officers.
The tender was awarded to Traffic Management Technology.
“The cameras project is self funding and the municipality will not spend any money for the cameras. The company will get a certain percentage,” Mabuza said.
Mabuza said mobile cameras, but in a letter in WITBANK NEWS’s possession, the acting municipal manager, Mr Sizwe Mayisela talks about installing fixed cameras on the bend of the road dubbed as road of death.
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He said the technical services directorate together with the traffic department held meetings with the ward councillor to address the accidents on the road.
“The municipality has a contract for installation of fixed cameras in Emalahleni in progress and the curve in OR Tambo road is included as part of the areas,” Mayisela is directly quoted.
The municipality wants to erect fixed speed cameras on OR Tambo’s bend.
The traffic department will be installing warning and speed reduction signs with road markings to alert road users about the dangerous bend.
While the municipality can’t come to agreement about what to do on the Road of Death more and more accidents are reported on the road on a weekly basis.
Back in 2007 the municipality erected speed cameras in Mandela Road and Or Tambo Road.
The programme for the cameras started back in 2004, three years later the municipality forked out R324 722 for something that never worked. The only thing they can now show for all that money spent is two empty rusted boxes.
Speed humps is not an option
OR Tambo Road falls in a category which does not warrant that speed humps can be erected. Because it is a main arterial road with high mobility and limited access speed humps is not an option.
WITBANK NEWS approached Advocate Johan Jonck from Arrive Alive for more background on traffic and speed calming.
Her shared information from a presentation by Traffic Calming and Road Safety Course, South African Road Federation by Jan Coetzee.
“In South Africa we have a prioritization system for traffic calming as we do not, like most authorities, have enough funds in the budget to implement all the traffic calming measures which transport authorities are requested to implement. This used for active traffic calming measures such as speed humps, raised pedestrian crossings and mini-circles.”
Traffic calming is most often necessitated by too high speeds, reckless driving, impact of safety and quality of life.
OR Tambo Road ticks all of those boxes.
Coetzee said it is not wise to erect traffic calming in front of entrances, not in shade of trees and other physical objects during the day, not where they are not illuminated by street lighting at night, not on gradients in excess of 8 %, not on gravel roads, not on class four or higher class roads although they sometimes implement mini-circles on such streets or not within a specified distance of other control mechanisms such as traffic signals.
“If the municipality can not erect speed humps, why do they not consider other alternatives such as mini circles or stop streets? The traffic department is non-existent in the city. The municipality cannot even manage to send out correct service delivery accounts. Who will monitor traffic fines?” local resident Mr John Cornish asked.
AfriForum’s help denied
AfriForum’s proposal to make OR Tambo a safer road to travel on has been denied.
The civil right group wanted to erect two three-way stop signs on the corner of OR Tambo Road and Mona Street and OR Tambo Road and Woltemade Street.
“We are looking at various alternatives to make OR Tambo Road safer. The alarmingly high number of accidents has to be addressed,” Mr Alf Friess from AfriForum said.
Mr Alf Friess from AfriForum is disappointed because the municipality is looking a gift horse in the mouth.
AfriForum would have footed the bill for the purchasing of the signage and road marking paint, erecting the stop streets and painting the road surfaces.
They have a contractor to carry out the work in accordance with the Road Traffic Act.
The acting municipal manager, Mr Sizwe Mayisela said OR Tambo is a main arterial road with high mobility and limited access.
“To ensure adequate mobility on this road, high number of intersections and obstructions should be discouraged to ensure safety and good road functionality.”
