Durban - The Road Freight Association (RFA) says the call to ban the movement of trucks on major roads during the day was badly informed and posed a far greater risk of accidents due to lack of visibility at night.
Some, including two northern KwaZulu-Natal municipalities, have called for stricter rules and an allocated time for when trucks should be on roads, following a spate of recent truck crashes, including a horrific accident near Pongola that claimed the lives of 20 people, including 18 school children, last Friday.
Zululand Municipality mayor Thulasizwe Buthelezi said he believed an imposed curfew and ban on trucks on the municipality’s roads between 6am and 6pm would curb the accidents.
He called on the minister of transport to come up with a national strategy to regulate the number of trucks passing through Zululand.
In response to this, Gavin Kelly, RFA CEO said: “This is the last thing we need. We have spent many years trying to get as many trucks off the roads at night as possible.
“The risk is far greater with bad lighting, reflectivity (both from oncoming vehicles and own lights), lack of law enforcement presence on roads after 4pm, and the increase in reckless and negligent driving behaviour by all categories of vehicles.
“This is not the way to go at all. Imagine all freight now moves at night – there would be a storm of vehicles trying to get onto and along the routes.”
Kelly said the Road Traffic Management Corporation should come out strongly against this call, given the crash statistics they publish.
“There will still be huge volumes of trucks that will travel at night (due to the nature of cargo and scheduling and supplying fresh goods for retail restock of retail / manufacturing processes.”
UMhlathuze Municipality mayor Xolani Ngwezi said another solution would be to fast-track railway infrastructure repairs, which would ease the pressure on national roads.
“We know that the railways are often vandalised, and that means more stakeholders need to come on board to ensure that we keep criminals away from stealing and damaging railway infrastructure,” he said.
Two Pongola residents who have been calling for stricter law enforcement on truck drivers, Adrian Chaning-
Pearce and Jabu Hansen, said they did not think a ban or curfew was the solution and agreed with the RFA that it would do more damage than good.
Chaning-Pearce said truck drivers need to first abide by the rules of the road, and they should account for their actions.
“Not all drivers cause accidents.
“The drivers that are problematic need to be removed from our roads – the truck owners and drivers should take responsibility.
“We all have to abide by the rules of the road, it’s about time trucks do the same.”
Hansen agreed that law enforcement was key.
“Road traffic officers come from Nongoma to enforce the law in Pongola, and only for a short period, that leaves motorists to do as they please in their absence.
“I don’t think that route was designed for heavy duty vehicles. The road is narrow, it would need to be expanded and have a designated truck lane.”