Thornhill's children's lives daily at stake

ROB KNOWLES

CHILDREN who live on the Thornhill side of the R67 provincial road are forced to risk their lives daily attempting to negotiate traffic on a main road as they walk to school.

The R67 was previously a provincial road which has recently been taken over by the South African National Roads Authority Limited (Sanral). According to councillor Terri Stander, Sanral has indicated it does not want municipal traffic involvement in maintaining traffic safety on the road.

In response, Stander organised a school patrol on Monday morning between 7am and 8am, followed by a safety talk by Ndlambe chief traffic officer, Fred Cannon, at Kuyasa Combined School.

"I am very concerned for the safety of the children on our roads,” said Cannon. "But I also understand that Sanral cannot allow us (the municipality) to just paint road markings or set up specific crossing points on a main road. We therefore need to work together with them to put traffic calming measures in place and also educate the children in road safety.”

Stander was not happy Sanral was doing enough in this regard.

"Rumble strips are inadequate to calm traffic and even today we saw instances of speeding vehicles,” added Stander. "The rumble strips (currently in place) are too low and do not slow traffic. They only exist on one side of the road often encouraging cars to drive on the oncoming lane to avoid them. ‘Table-top' speed humps are required to force speed reduction.”

Municipal ranger, Dumisane Ntamo, who patrols the area around Thornhill, said he believed the area was just an accident waiting to happen.

"To prevent multi-crossing areas for pedestrians and animals, we need a concrete fence along the length of the residential areas,” said Ntamo.

It has also been suggested by various members of the public that an enclosed overhead pedestrian bridge would be the safest option for pedestrian crossing.

"The current hazardous and life-threatening situation is as a result of a lack of planning and poor service delivery,” said Stander. "If government had anticipated the issues of developing a residential area separated by a busy road from schools, churches and shops; they could have planned to deal with the resulting dangers associated with the increase in pedestrian traffic.

"Instead, unsupervised children play chicken with speeding cars to cross the road to get to school. A further risk is created when cars and taxis pull onto the side of the road obstructing the view of both pedestrians and drivers.”

At the Kuyasa Combined School assembly the children were told to look right, left and then right again before crossing and not to run across the road, but walk calmly and briskly.

Stander agreed with Cannon it was necessary for the children to take responsibility for their own safety and ensure they obeyed the rules. Together they announced the launch of a scholar patrol initiative at the school.The traffic department wasted no time in preparing the school for the programme, as these would be done on roads its does control. New traffic lines were painted on Tuesday this week, and the erection of new signage will follow shortly.

"The traffic department, and especially superintendent Boyce Mjingwana, were fantastic with their support of my initiative and their assistance made the event a success,” said Stander.

Still, until the matter is resolved Stander said she would continue with her campaign to make the area safe for children and other pedestrians.

"I will be writing a letter to the Provincial Department for Transport and Sanral as well as liaising with the DA shadow MEC for Transport to make sure something is done,” said Stander.

While this remains a critical issue, TotT will continue to follow the matter closely over the next few weeks.