Pinetown M13 crash barriers are a hazard

THE issue of the Pinetown M13 has, once again, come under the spotlight following a freak accident in December.

According to residents of the Palm Gardens Complex on Mariannhill Road, they were woken up by a loud bang on Sunday, December 18 around 01:00 when a driver lost control of his vehicle on the M13 westbound.

The residents said it is still a mystery how the vehicle landed up on their complex.

ALSO READ: WATCH: Truck crashes through roof of Pinetown warehouse

“Luckily, the family who live close to where the car crashed were away that night – the worst could have happened,” said one of the residents.

One of the trustees, Denver Naidoo, said the vehicle breached the M13 crash barrier, then breached the Palm Gardens/Gelofte Skool fence line, finally coming to rest in one of the units within the Palm Gardens Complex property.

He pleaded for the municipality or the roads department to get the M13 westbound crash barrier assessed.

“We, as the residents of Palm Gardens, feel the current crash barrier is inadequate to stop high-speed vehicles, and we would appreciate it if the current crash-barrier height were increased like it has been done on the M13 eastbound coming down Fields Hill.”

In addition, Naidoo said they would appreciate it if Forrest Road could have crash barriers installed to protect the houses in Palm Gardens.

ALSO READ: N3 highway near Mariannhill Toll Plaza closed due to multiple-vehicle accident

“The Palm Gardens Body Corporate has, on multiple occasions, had to pay for repairs to the fence line and damages to property since there is no crash barrier along the length of Forrest Road,” he said.

Residents said that when the incident occurred, Blue Security, Metro Police, SAPS and towing services arrived on scene.

“Thankfully, there were no injuries to report, however, there has been damage to property. The driver of the vehicle had no visible injuries and was taken away by SAPS.

“Arrangements were made to get the vehicle removed from the property using specialised recovery equipment. Around 12:00 on Sunday, Forrest Road, which is parallel to the M13, was closed in both directions while the vehicle recovery took place,” said Naidoo.

Poor Service Delivery

The residents highlighted that they were very concerned about the road-safety issues.

“What concerned us during this ordeal was that there was no written statement taken by the responding officers. We did ask the SAPS officers that were present how we would be able to ensure the Trustees of Palm Gardens could obtain an AR (Accident Report) number for insurance purposes, and the responding officers were totally ‘blasé’ about the entire incident.

“We were told that, since there was no loss of life and the vehicle collided with a stationary object, a report will be filed in the morning. The Palm Gardens trustees did a follow-up with Pinetown SAPS station, and there was no incident reported by the responding officers.

“The accident report was then completed by the Palm Gardens Trustees at Pinetown SAPS. The driver of the vehicle was not questioned by SAPS – all questioning and detail-gathering was done by Blue Security who assisted us throughout the ordeal,” said Naidoo.

The residents mentioned that the streetlights have not been working for the past three years. “Poor visibility is a major contributor to the increased number of accidents on Forrest Road.

“The residents in our community have reported this to the municipality on numerous occasions, but nothing has been done to resolve this problem. Forrest Road also has a drainage problem which has never been addressed. Community members must constantly drive on the oncoming lane to avoid the huge water pool that builds up when we have heavy rains,” he said.

eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said the city does move with speed to fix streetlights.

“However, thieves from our community are unrelenting in stealing parts of the infrastructure, hence this challenge.”

Pinetown SAPS communications officer Captain Bongumusa Manqele was not available for comment by the time of going to print.

—