Safety and Security

Accident hot-spots: Accident hot-spots are often interlinked and are sometimes created by accidents. In this regard, the importance of truck stops cannot be over-emphasized. In other cases, they are just hot-spots for hi-jacking. Examples of hot-spots in terms of accidents and crime in Nkangala include:

• N4 Emalahleni wall
• N11 downhill at Loskop dam where truck brakes often fail (an arrester bed could be an effective intervention)
• On the N12 just before the R42 off-ramp
• N4 Ultra City (hijacking)
• R555 Witbank/Middelburg Tshweleni Corridor as it narrows into the bridge (needs to be dual carriageway all the way to enable all types of traffic to pass each other simultaneously)

Hot-spots for accidents (which often occur due human error especially driver fatigue) in Ehlanzeni include:

• R540
• Steep sections of the R37
• R40/Bulembu and Bushbuckridge mountain
• R538 at Numbi gate Kokote

In terms of interventions, it would be important to put in place a skeleton 24-hr operations or ad hoc operations to patrol the hotspots (to some extent, that is why truckers hire private security companies to assist them with their security concerns and these costs are often passed onto the consumer). Weighbridges are often useful in crime prevention largely because of traffic officer presence. Other intervention could include:

• Continuous driver training
• Well-appointed and resourced truck stops (shops, clinic, overnight accommodation, etc.)
• Arrester beds
• Proper and visible road markings and signage, and
• Stringent vehicle inspection.)

Round the clock service: The major constraint presently experienced aside from the manpower shortages, is the inability of road traffic to provide a 24-hour service. This effectively means that for the period between the ending of the last shift and the commencement of the first shift very little or very little law enforcement happens. RTMC has submitted a request that Road Traffic Enforcement be declared an essential service.

The shortage of personnel currently experienced by this directorate is due to the fact that RTMC is busy with new curriculum for training of traffic officers. The total number of pedestrians killed in 2006 was 98 and the Department does not have a breakdown of age groups. The Department has the following breakdown of persons killed in Busses, Midi busses and Mini busses:

In most cases driver's behaviour, drunken pedestrians, jay walking and poor visibility contributed to road deaths and overloading remains a serious problem in the Province

Table above provides statistics on overloading in the N4 and other Provincial routes.