Road of death claims two lives
Two people were killed on the notorious Moloto Road on Saturday during a heavy rain storm.
The Moloto Road, which has already earned the dubious reputation of being one of the deadliest roads in the world, has claimed two more lives on the weekend during a heavy rain storm.
Known as the Road of Death, the notorious stretch of road in the north of the city has now claimed almost 90 lives during 2014, despite continuous efforts from traffic officials to halt the carnage and a R10 billion upgrade.
According to Advanced Paramedic Assist (APA), they had been dispatched to yet another accident on the road on December 27, this time near the SA Police Service Dog School.
On arrival, they found that a truck and a bakkie had collided head-on, leaving two people dead and a third with minor injuries. APA said the heavy rain resulted in reduced visibility.
APA urged motorists to be careful on the roads during heavy rain storms and advised them to keep their headlights on while driving.
“Even better yet is to stay off the roads during inclement weather,” APA said.
Tshwane officials earlier this month announced that the road would be placed under strict scrutiny over the festive season in an attempt to stop the regular accidents.
Constant monitoring, an increased number of traffic officials and speed cameras has formed part of the metro’s attempts to stop the death and mayhem on Moloto Road, which is used by about 50 000 people travelling to and from Pretoria in private vehicles and taxis that compete for road space with some 600 buses daily. The road also sees a large number of heavy truck traffic.
In one of the deadliest accidents on the road, 30 lives were claimed in a gruesome accident involving a bus and a truck in November last year. The most recent was Saturday’s collision that left two dead. More than 200 people had also been seriously injured on the road over the past year.
The frequent carnage on the road had also recently earned Moloto a spot on “The World’s Most Dangerous Roads”, a documentary television series by German filmmaker Oliver Becker. Becker spent a week filming traffic and talking to motorists on the R573 (Moloto road), which runs between the north of Pretoria and Marble Hall.
Other countries where Becker filmed dangerous roads included Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Bangladesh and Bolivia. However, the filmmaker said the Moloto road was dangerous from a different view point.
“It is not like the other roads where nature is involved. There are no glaciers, landslides, rock falls or roads hanging on cliff edges,” he said, adding that it was the people on the Moloto road that were the danger.
He listed reckless overtaking and pedestrians carelessly crossing the busy road with beer bottles in hand.
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