Durban - The IFP has called on the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport to adopt a no-nonsense approach to unroadworthy vehicles, including trucks that pose a grave threat on the province's roads.
This comes after a video of a runaway truck on the N3 in KwaZulu-Natal went viral on social media. IOL reported that one person sustained serious injuries in the crash on Wednesday and was transported to Hilton Hospital
Steven Moodley, IFP provincial spokesperson on Transport and member of the Provincial Legislature, said that if there were traffic police conducting roadblocks every day, the truck could have been stopped before the crash.
“Serious questions must be asked. Innocent lives are lost daily due to unroadworthy vehicles and reckless drivers who flout the rules of the road. What is the KZN Department of Transport doing to stop this senseless carnage on our roads?”
Moodley added that the party had been calling for traffic police to work 24/7 but the call continues to fall on deaf ears.
“If the KZN MEC for Transport, Peggy Nkonyeni, is truly concerned about road accidents, she must deploy more traffic police on our roads. The time for excuses is over. Unroadworthy vehicles, including trucks, have become ‘killing machines’ and must be removed from our roads.”
Moodley said that more roadblocks needed to be conducted regularly and not during the festive season and Easter holidays.
“Action must also be taken against truck companies that fail to service their trucks. Finally, the IFP calls for harsher punishment to be meted out to anyone found to have disobeyed traffic rules, or to be driving an unroadworthy vehicle.”