A woman who left home for work never returned.

Her death in an accident on Winnie Mandela Drive has become a painful reminder of the human cost of road safety failures, renewing calls from Ward 93 councillor Vino Reddy and Ward 94 councillor David Foley for urgent action to repair faulty traffic lights across Fourways.

Read more: Pedestrian dies after taxi allegedly drives through a red light at Fourways intersection

Foley said the pedestrian was killed at the intersection of Winnie Mandela Drive and Robert Bruce Road, where the traffic lights were functioning at the time.

According to him, CCTV footage reportedly shows the woman had the right of way when a taxi allegedly drove through a red traffic light.

“To me, this is somebody’s mother, sister, and family. That person is not coming home anymore. She was simply going to work.”

While describing the incident as unrelated to faulty traffic lights, he said it highlighted the need for every major intersection in Fourways to be fully operational. “We just can’t continue like this.”

The fatal crash came on the same day as another serious collision at the intersection of Lonehill Boulevard and Main Road, where traffic lights have reportedly been out of service for the past three months.

The Lonehill intersection is one of more than 18 major intersections Foley counted across Fourways with non-functioning traffic lights.

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Reddy said the Lonehill traffic lights stopped working after a vehicle allegedly crashed into the control box. He also raised concern over the long-standing outage at Maxwell Drive and Van Der Bijl Avenue, where traffic lights have reportedly been out of service for years.

“I believe it has not been treated as a serious matter that these intersections are not working.”

He said residents and local ratepayers’ associations have repeatedly called for repairs, adding that prolonged outages have contributed to accidents, injuries and severe traffic congestion.

“The longer they stay out, the more lawlessness amongst motorists remains. People disregard the intersections. They do not regard them as a four-way stop; hence, we have the accident situation.”

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Having raised the matter with provincial authorities for months, Foley said he has now escalated it to the Gauteng MEC responsible for roads.

He added that the Fourways Improvement District, a non-profit company, is exploring whether it can work directly with contractors to help restore traffic lights while residents await government action.

Brigadier Veeshani Arikum from Douglasdale police confirmed that a pedestrian was killed in an accident on July 2.

The Gauteng provincial government had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication despite follow-ups.

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