EDITOR – A homeless person who had been sleeping in the road outside Dalton Hostel in Sydney Road was killed by a heavy duty truck at 6pm on 4 August when both sets of wheels passed over his unconscious body. He was killed instantly. An off-duty Metro Police officer responded but eventually had to leave the scene.
As of 9.20pm, the body had still not been attended to and the truck driver was still awaiting the arrival of the police. The incident was reported to Metro Police again at 9.25pm.
Heavy duty truck congestion along Sydney, Umbilo Roads, Gale Street and feeder side streets, particularly at night, are becoming an increasing problem with access to the Dalton Hostel and other large residential structures such as Flamingo Court, often blocked to emergency vehicles. There have also been a number of serious accidents in the area. This can only be considerably exacerbated by the anticipated eight-fold increase in trucking when most of the area is converted to logistics and container storage depots to service the Durban Port and Petrochemical industry expansion.
Vanessa Burger
Umbilo
