NATIONAL NEWS - With the roadworks ongoing on the N3 near Pietermaritzburg, residents have cried foul over heavy trucks using Old Howick Road when accidents force the closure of the freeway.
On Sunday, both the south and northbound lanes on Town Hill were closed for hours after a truck transporting vegetable oil overturned.
Road users travelling towards Hilton were stuck on the N3 on both lanes from just 07:30, when the crash occurred, until after 14:00 while authorities were clearing the scene.
Spokesperson for the Road Traffic Inspectorate, Zinhle Mngomezulu, said the truck’s brakes failed on its way down the N3 from Hilton, and it overturned just after the Peter Brown bridge.
Part of the truck also caught fire. Mngomezulu said the oil was spilled across both lanes.
“Part of the truck also went over the northbound lane … Traffic was diverted to Howick Road and trucks were parked at the truck stop in Hilton,” said Mngomezulu.
Miraculously, the truck driver walked away from the crash.
A paramedic said the driver had no injuries. While trucks were meant to park off at the truck stop, some used the alternative route, causing a build-up of traffic on municipal roads including Old Howick Road and Montgomery Drive.
Issue of trucks using municipal roads
Ward 25 councillor Mike Bond said having trucks using municipal roads was not only an issue for his ward, but many were affected even outside Msunduzi Municipality.
Bond said there were not enough traffic officials to control the trucks from diverting away from the N3 when there were traffic jams, and this was an issue that the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) should take responsibility for.
I went to see Sanral some weeks ago and they don’t seem to have a memorandum of understanding as this project involves four municipalities. Meanwhile, the memorandum of understanding will help as people would know where the money would come from for certain things
He added that whenever there’s an accident, it’s usually said that drivers can use alternative routes, which affected local roads.
Bond said the money to fix damaged local roads comes from the municipality and that money is never budgeted for.
“It’s becoming a problem when we keep asking for assistance even though there’s no budget. If there is a memorandum of understanding, at least it would be Treasury’s responsibility to fund projects involving fixing our local roads,” he said.
Bond said Sanral’s contractors should be in charge of security around this project.
He said because of the pressure from affected wards as well as members of community policing forums, the Road Traffic Inspectorate has been trying to provide extra assistance. Bond said there were even trucks using the steep and winding Cordwalles Road.
We’ve had a traffic blockage which lasted for hours. Most of our bridges in town are only built for 10 tons and we have these trucks driving across them weighing more than 10 tons, which is a huge risk.
Bond said it doesn’t seem that Sanral has a timeframe of when the repairs to the N3 at Townhill will be finished. “Even after they’ve fixed it at Townhill, there’ll still be accidents because of human nature, but having trucks on our local roads needs to be sorted out,” he said.
