Accidents On "Highway OF Death"

GREG KELEBONYE
Staff Writer | Monday January 11, 2010 00:00

 

The ever growing carnage on the road now not only calls for the highway's thousands of drivers' attention but also that of other players such as the Department of Roads, and that of Road Transport and Safety. The latest casualties are two men whose mangled heavy-duty truck collided with a trailer from another truck Saturday morning. The men who were critically injured, were heading west in their truck while the other was heading east.

'It appears there was a smaller vehicle overtaking and the driver of the east-bound truck applied his brakes to avoid running over the sedan and also to avoid a head on collision between the sedan and the oncoming heavy-duty truck, but since it was raining its trailer wheels must have skidded resulting in the trailer swerving into the other truck's lane' said an eye witness.

Mogoditshane Police Traffic Officer Inspector Otlaadisa Mogotsi says the road has become the bane of pedestrians and motorists alike.

'In the last year, we have registered no less than 10 deaths on this road,' he said as he recounts some of the accidents. They include among others a sand ferrying tipper truck that overturned and buried alive the very people who had been loading the sand, resulting in the death of one of the men; an head-on collision between a bus and a sedan with the two occupants of the sedan dying; a fatality after a sedan crashed into stationary tipper, completely dislodging the tipper's axle; a hit and run where an elderly woman was hit and killed by a speeding vehicle only meters from her house.

Mogotsi said that as the police they are very worried by the carnage on the road and have deployed resources to give it greater attention. The Police alone though cannot stop the carnage. And the village leadership, having realized this has begun demanding some action from government departments whose contribution may help prevent future serious accidents.

'As the village leadership, both political and civil, we are worried by the number and nature of accidents on this road. Just last week we called people from the Roads Department to come and discuss with us possible ways of reducing accidents.

We have even suggested that they put up warning signs such as those telling drivers and other road users that this stretch is danger prone,' said Gabane East Councilor Ofentse Mareme, whose ward has registered the most accidents.

Mareme said that what made it most difficult to get a solution is the fact that the law does not allow for speed control measures such as humps to be erected on a highway.

'Our contention though is that the highway is going right through our village -as the village has now grown and continues to expand. Everyone, especially those whose houses are along the highway are most vulnerable.

Since we know the government will say there is no money to build another highway in the place of this one, we are only saying that consideration should be given to the fact that ours is now a village and strictly applying rules for highways will cost many more lives,' he said.

While the stretch of the highway in question is part of an 80 kilometer stretch passing through the villages of Mogoditshane, Gabane, Kumakwane, Thamaga and Moshupa.