‘Trucks in the fast lane cause untold misery’

I refer to the article headlined “Scientific evidence needed to identify causes of fatal accidents” (FTW February 20, 2009), but believe several contributing factors are overlooked. And as a road user of some 2 million kilometres in my lifetime, I would like to share a few additional pointers that are not noted. The use of the fast lane of a highway by trucks causes untold misery for other road users and this is done continually on two lane highways like the R59 between Alberton and Sasolburg. When this occurs, two behemoths travelling at almost the same speed stack up alongside each other and block the entire highway at their speed – sometimes for 5 minutes at a time – while one tries to pass the other. Usually on an uphill the would-be passer cannot make it and has to slip behind thus releasing the highway again. Complaints numbers should be mandatory on every truck I feel the inside truck should be trained to immediately give way to the would-be passer. Of course, this kind of inconsiderate behaviour really gives the truckers a negative appearance to the faster sedan traffic locked helplessly behind and there is usually no-one to complain to. On that score I would like to see it legislated that every truck has a complaints number boldly inscribed on the horse and the trailer. Some of the more professional truckers do this and it is noticeable that their vehicles are less of a menace on the roads. I use these numbers where necessary but find that the unmarked trucks give the most problem. While on the subject of truck complaints I find the level of truck breakdowns on a hill like the N3 at Van Buuren road mystifying and unacceptable. Also the loss of so many loads on our highways at peak times is a huge nuisance. The collective cost of these two items to the economy must be frightening. In my opinion both of these are caused by negligence on the part of the truck owners, drivers and loading customers. Loss of loads should carry R100 000 fine I would like to recommend that a negligent act like this be fined R100 000 and be added to the statute book – you will quickly find that the loss of loads will stop as slipshod loading would disappear and the maintenance of trucks using hilly routes would be attended to better. All these avoidable issues add to the impatience of the less cautious car drivers and contribute heavily to their frustration which causes stupid short cuts to be taken thus causing fatal and unnecessary accidents. John Bewsey.