Middelburg drivers the worst by far
On Tuesday, during a double sitting of council, Mayor Bagudi Tolo tackled the carnage on Middelburg’s roads head-on, saying drivers must take responsibility for their own lives, those of their families, and motorists around them.
“Too many people die on our roads,” Mayor Tolo told councillors, in a call for the ongoing road slaughters to stop.
Like Middelburg Observer journalists, Mayor Tolo has a reason to lie awake at night due to road accidents, following the release of the Nkangala District Municipality’s major incident report for the first quarter of 2019 at the end of May.
Though the district did not declare any “disasters” in line with Section 55 of the Disaster Management Act, there were a number of major incidents the district’s disaster management teams attended to, and in regards to road accidents, Middelburg drivers beat eMalahleni motorists with a staggering 170 accidents, a full 48 accidents more than eMalahleni’s average for the entire quarter.
The district’s disaster management team responded to 292 accidents in Middelburg, compared to eMalahleni’s 122 over the same period.
In Middelburg 15 pedestrian accidents were recorded to eMalahleni’s four, and Middelburg’s firefighters had to respond to 10 structural fires and 10 veld fires, compared to eMalahleni’s three and zero respectively.
• Thembisile Hani Municipality – 29 road accidents, one pedestrian accident, three veld fires and 18 structural fires.
• Dr JS Moroka Municipality – 13 vehicle accidents, three pedestrian accidents, six veld fires and 21 structural fires.
• Victor Khanye Municipality – 36 vehicle accidents, no pedestrian accidents, five veld fires and 17 structural fires.
• Emakhazeni Municipality – 46 road accidents, no pedestrian accidents, no veld fires and four structural fires.
The number of fatalities in each of the listed accidents were not supplied in the report.
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