Residents urged to sign petition following horrific Merebank accident
Ward 66 councillor JP Prinsloo expressed that over the years Bluff residents have been subjected to a steady influx of trucks entering the Bluff illegally.
TRUCKING has become a serious problem in Durban with daily accidents resulting in many deaths of school children in taxis and buses and families wiped out due to unfortunate truck and vehicle collisions.
The most recent accident claimed the life of a teacher who died when a 70ton crane rolled off a truck and crashed into three Quantum minibuses and a vehicle on Himalayas Drive, Merebank on 14 September.
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Ward 66 councillor JP Prinsloo expressed that over the years Bluff residents have been subjected to a steady influx of trucks entering the Bluff illegally.
“These trucks speed through our residential area and on roads not meant for large, dangerous trucks in an attempt to access the Durban harbour. The flow of trucks can be seen on a daily basis heading down residential roads to avoid long queues and congestion along dedicated access routes to the harbour. The cause of this hazardous behaviour is the inefficiency of the Durban harbour and its inability to handle increased amounts of import and export related activity. Due to the limited capacity of the Durban harbour trucking companies are forced to load and offload their shipment in a short space of time. This has led to trucks queuing for hours along Edwin Swales and some taking shortcuts through the Bluff to meet their shipping deadlines,” he explained.
Prinsloo did, however, add that the cause of the problem is not entirely the fault of the logistics companies but rather that the cause is largely due to government’s failure to plan and invest in the expansion of the harbour and its supporting infrastructure.
His office has created a petition that residents can sign in opposition to the trucks which will be handed over to the speaker of the council and the municipal manager. “My colleagues and I will be submitting motions to the Provincial Legislature, Parliament at the next council sitting scheduled for the last week in September highlighting the plight of Bluff residents. If there is no action by the City and higher levels of government we will be forced to take to the streets to voice our anger as it seems this is the only time government will listen,” said a determined Prinsloo.
The petition is available to sign on: https://forms.gle/HiEemzN2HyFqTVvG8
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