11-point plan could reduce truck accident scourge

As truck accidents and lost loads continue to dominate the headlines, the question of culpability is a hot issue. Road Freight Association technical and operations manager Gavin Kelly believes that truck drivers are sometimes unfairly blamed. “Incidents are often caused by light vehicles moving around them at ridiculous speeds and performing stops and turns in front of oncoming vehicles,” he said recently. It’s an issue close to the heart of FTW reader John Bewsey, who has clocked up some two million kilometres in his lifetime and collected ample photographic evidence of poor driving and poor securing of loads – and the knock-on impact on traffic flows. Bewsey believes that some simple pointers would go a long way to addressing the issues at the root of many of the problems: ● Outlaw the payment of front end bashing where tailgating was obvious. ● Erect camera-operated vision points at all intersections like Reading and N3N/Alberton to eliminate cut-ins that cause fury to the law-abiding. ● Fine trucks that lose their loads on any busy road – minimum R100 000 but in proportion to the trouble caused. In some cases confiscate the truck. ● Fine trucks that break down at bad areas (like Van Buuren road) and do not have proof of servicing – R100 000. ● Create a report bad driving hotline and advertise it continuously and prominently – the public want to help police the roads. ● Create a system of random auditing of road blocks by unmarked auditors from Price Waterhouse (or similar) to ensure honesty of the police. ● Make accident and death statistics available all the time – like the gold price or weather report – to make the public continually aware of the war zone in which we operate. ● Make part of a fine for habitual bad driving 100 hours of community service in trauma units of a hospital over weekends. ● Make it illegal for two or more long vehicles to travel nose to tail on a single lane road – they must leave at least once car space in between for faster vehicles to overtake. ● Control the ratio of hours spent by traffic officers in speed traps to the total hours available – say 40% max. ● Make all fines payable to the state and not the municipalities – this will stop the tendency to use this form of income generation as a priority.