Badfontein woman killed in head-on collision
The R36/Badfontein road, dubbed the nightmare road, has claimed a life, after a head-on collision occurred on Tuesday morning
LYDENBURG – The R36/Badfontein road, dubbed the nightmare road, has claimed a life, after a head-on collision occurred on Tuesday morning.
Ms Ronel Lategan (43) was travelling to her home in the Badfontein area when her Toyota Land Cruiser collided with an Izusa truck. According to Mr Deon Broekman, hazmat operator, Lategan tried to overtake another truck on the road when she collided with the truck. She was killed on impact. Broekman and paramedics of Netcare 911 had to cut her body from the wreck.
For several years, residents and farmers in the Badfontein district have been complaining about the condition of the pothole-riddled road.
Although the Mpumalanga Department of Road and Transport did refurbish about
10 kilometres of the road surface, the remaining 40 kilometres leading into town and out to the Machadodorp off-ramp remains in a terrible state.
A few months ago the newspaper asked the department why only 10 kilometres had been repaired. It replied that they would rehabilitate the road in phases due to budgetary constraints.
“Hence only 10 kilometres was completed in phase one of the project while phase two (approximately 10 kilometres) will commence at the beginning of the 2017/18 financial year. Eventually the entire road (approximately 50 kilometres) will be rehabilitated or repaired.”
Farmers in the district said that they had even asked Sanral to take over the maintenance of this road, but that the department of roads and transport refused to hand it over.
