A lack of road markings, warning signs and speed humps in Sardinia Bay has sparked an outcry among Nelson Mandela Bay residents who use various access roads in and out of the area.
As scores of animals are maimed and killed along the suburb’s bushy, tree-lined streets, the risk to human life resulting from accidents has also increased due to the overgrown trees and other vegetation obscuring visibility.
A woman attending a bachelorette party suffered serious injuries recently when she collided with another car at the intersection of Olive Lane and Sardinia Bay Road.
The impact from a Toyota Hilux Dakar sent the Toyota Fortuner she was driving into a wild spin before hitting a tree.
The woman was flung out through the driver’s side window, sustaining extensive bruising, torn ligaments and a broken right ankle.
This accident in the area on Saturday last week renewed calls for improved road safety.
“My office does follow-ups on outstanding repairs, markings and signs just about every day,” Ward 1 councillor Dries van der Westhuizen said.
“It’s a challenge throughout the metro that our roads are suboptimal.
“There aren’t enough [visible] markings and signage.
“This makes all the roads dangerous, especially at night, due to potholes.”
Despite the extent of the problem, he apportioned a sizeable number of vehicle collisions in the area to human error.
He said noncompliance, including speeding and failing to stop at a stop sign, was among the leading causes of crashes.
But Van der Westhuizen said the municipal and provincial transport departments had also provided an inadequate budget to address the issue.
“If we comply with the speed limits, we’ll have fewer accidents,” he said.
“[In Sardinia], we do regular site visits [as the ward councillor’s office] and get engineers from both departments involved.
“But the reason or excuse they often give is budget [constraints] and needing to prioritise roads according to budget.”
However, he praised some of the work done while singling out problem roads.
According to Van der Westhuizen, there was a marked improvement on the part of the provincial department in the past year, having resurfaced and cleared several roads across the ward.
After Saturday’s collision, Chantel van Vuuren, who recalled encountering a blind corner with no visible signs at a junction and taking a hit to the side from an oncoming vehicle, was ferried to Netcare Greenacres Hospital for an ankle operation.
Paramedics responded at about 1pm and stabilised her at the scene.
“On arrival, we found [Van Vuuren] lying on the ground,” Bester EMS spokesperson Wesley Bester said.
“She was covered in mud and was full of abrasions and cuts.”
Bester said a possible cause of the accident was obstructions on the road, which obscured oncoming traffic.
An animal rescuer in the area, Marizanne Kemp Ferreira, said residents had been calling for an improvement for about two decades.
“While we complain, nothing gets done,” Kemp Ferreira said.
“There’s [now] a new trend in which people from the suburbs take shortcuts through Sardinia Bay Road.
“They speed and our wildlife gets killed, maimed and injured.
“The lack of law enforcement — having begged for speed traps to be set and for the roads to be jacked up — is appalling.
“Wildlife like the blue duiker is endangered, yet there is no provision to protect them,” Kemp Ferreira said.
Provincial transport spokesperson Unathi Binqose said road signs and markings had been put up.
He said speed trapping could be considered but would be at the discretion of the municipality’s traffic section.
“It could be that a bit more is still needed,” Binqose said.
“We will investigate and look to invest more should that be the requirement.
“If this is unsuccessful, then speed humps and lowering speed limits in the vicinity of Olive Lane could be considered.
“These interventions should only be considered where there are accidents and where the 80th percentile of speed is over the signposted speed limit.
“The department has recently undertaken traffic calming on the new Seaview Road, where excessive speeds were recorded and where there were many accidents.”
Binqose said the department had done routine maintenance and trimming of overgrowing vegetation, among other measures.
“A team will also be deployed there for further assessments.”
The second driver, Johan Coetzee, said his vehicle had hit Van Vuuren’s at about 60km after she allegedly ignored the road rules.
“You can’t see far into the side road. And so I was travelling slowly, knowing the road.
“She drove in front of me [and] I rammed into her [car] from the side.”
Van Vuuren denied any wrongdoing.
“There’s lots of bush when you come to the end of the path,” she said.
“I looked [both ways] twice and when I looked up, a car [slammed] into me.”
Police spokesperson Colonel Priscilla Naidu said Walmer police were investigating a case of reckless and negligent driving.
“At this stage, it’s unclear how the accident occurred,” Naidu said.
Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki failed to respond to requests for comment.
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