Man injured as he cycles into illegal signboard
MIDRAND - Resident Daki Nkanyane told Midrand Reporter that he got hurt while cycling along Garden Road on the corner of Mimosa Road.
“I cycled into steel poles erected on the pathway on 24 March at 6pm. I hurt my eye and have a bruise on my shoulder and my left arm is numb. The access signboard was recently put up illegally, the cement was still wet.”
Nkanyane added that many cyclists use that road to go to Olievenbosch every day.
“I was lucky because I was wearing a helmet and that Vusumuzi Baleni helped me after I fell off the bike. Metro police came to cut off the poles and removed them after the incident.”
Nkanyane said he spoke to the owner of the company that put the access signboard, Graydon Ilderton, who genuinely apologised and offered to pay for his medical costs and the repair of his mountain bike.
Asked why they illegally put an access signboard for their company on the roadside, Ilderton said he and other residents had sent a petition to the Department of Roads and Transport asking for access signboards, amongst other services, on July 2013.
“To this day I have not received a response. It is regrettable that because my workers put the sign on the wrong spot, Nkanyane got hurt.”
ANC PR councillor Majasama Maringa confirmed that Daki Nkanyane was hurt and he rushed to the scene to assist him and called Metro police. “Companies must not just put up signs wherever they wish without permission.”
Metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said, “Metro police arrived at the scene, cut and removed the illegal sign on Garden Road on 24 March after a cyclist rode into [it] and fell off his bike.”
Midrand Reporter made enquiries with the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport and it was revealed that the initial person who received the email regarding Graydon Ilderton’s request for permission to put up a signpost, no longer works for the department. The issue has been escalated and will be looked into.
