Jabu Hansen from Pongola, KwaZulu-Natal, has been raising concerns about bad driver behaviour and lack of police visibility along the N2 where a deadly crash occurred, killing 20 people, including 18 pupils, on Friday.
Since 2019, Hansen has been posting videos and pictures showing the lawlessness by some drivers that has led to fatalities on the stretch of the road on social media platform Twitter, tagging minister of transport Fikile Mbalula and the SA National Roads Agency.
This, he said, he did because Mbalula was active on the app but he never received any response.
In some of the posts, he shares footages of accidents as they happen, hoping to draw the attention of authorities to act but they did nothing.
In his first post on June 13 2019, Hansen wrote that the N2 crosses through town without any traffic control measures.
"It is only a matter of time before a huge accident that will take many lives happens..." he wrote.
On Friday, a truck overtaking another at high speed collided head-on with a bakkie that was ferrying pupils home from school.
The driver of the bakkie, a teacher and pupils lost their lives.
It was only yesterday that Mbalula's office contacted him, asking for a meeting to discuss the issues he has been raising.
"It is a little too late. Lives have been lost. A few weeks before this accident, I sent a tweet asking for his [Mbalula] urgent intervention but he failed to respond."
Mbalula's spokesperson Lwazi Khoza said they were aware of the problematic road and were looking at the possible banning of heavy vehicles along the route.
Truck driver Sibusiso Siyaya, 28, made a brief appearance in the Pongola magistrate's court yesterday on 20 charges of culpable homicide.
He was remanded in custody until September 26.
In another post on August 26, Hansen shared a video of a truck overtaking and crashing head-on with two others.
"Trucks are killing [people] on the Pongola N2, no traffic cops manning this route, except local traffic cops when trucks get to town. We request your urgent intervention," he wrote but no one responded.
"There are 5,000 trucks that use the road every single day. The truck drivers don't observe road signs. They overtake on barrier lines and drive way beyond the speed limit."
Hansen said the portion of the road that is problematic starts from Itshelejuba Hospital, which goes down hill until Ogodlwayo which is where Friday's accident occurred.
Another hotspot is the Kwamlogo area, he said.
Hansen said on September 13, three trucks rolled over in separate incidents.
He said the community wants a way bridge that will assess the roadworthyness of trucks and police visibility, among other things.
sibiyan@sowetan.co.za
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