In this, the second submission from our on-the-road driver correspondent, he tackles the subject of the roadworthiness of vehicles and the flaws in the system, gives further feedback on the frustrating delays at Durban Harbour and tells of two errant drivers who plummeted down Town Hill. For obvious reasons , as you will gauge when reading his copy -he prefers to remain anonymous for he tells it like it is out there. His is the Driver’s Voice.
Remember the story about the so called brake fade. Well, yesterday afternoon (July 12th) at the same place where I took the pictures of the truck with its brakes smoking (see FleetWatch, June 2011), the driver of a Freightliner went into the concrete barriers at the road works at the bottom of Town Hill at a ‘˜moerse’ speed. He had two (6 meter) containers that fell on the trailer and parts of the wrecked truck were lying all over the place. His front axle and diffs were ripped from the truck.
I don’t know if there were any cars involved in the accident as all the trucks were backed up for about 10km and it took me four hours to pass the scene. The picture I am sending you shows the line up of trucks I was stuck in. Then, on July 18th, the road works at Town Hill claimed the second truck due to the truck speeding down the hill. It was a bad day as the N3 was closed almost the whole day. More delays.
I wish someone would do something to get rid of inexperienced drivers and the ones that are causing havoc on our roads. Then, only the best will be on our roads and not only will our roads be safer, but our salaries will also go up. You mos know the saying: ‘˜If you pay peanuts you get monkeys’.
The point is, with them around, South Africa’s roads are becoming a death trap for everyone.
FleetWatch invites our truck drivers out there to share their stories with us – please e-mail fleetwatch@pixie.co.za and make your voices heard!