Reckless truck driver caused Pongola crash
‘Siyaya drove 1.2km facing oncoming traffic before crash’
The driver of the truck that was involved in the Pongola accident that killed 20 people overtook several vehicles and drove facing oncoming traffic for about 1.2km before the crash.
This was revealed by transport minister Fikile Mbalula yesterday when he released the preliminary report of the crash that shocked the nation.
Mbalula said investigations conducted by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) concluded that the truck driver’s reckless behaviour was the major contributing factor to the crash.
“These vehicles had to swerve out of the way of the approaching truck. The driver never made any attempt to return to his correct lane, but continued driving against oncoming traffic, putting lives of other motorists at risk.
“The report concludes that driver error is the major contributing factor to the root cause of the road crash. This is as a result of the driver of the articulated truck overtaking multiple vehicles, where this action was prohibited by noovertaking lines, in a dangerous and unlawful manner, placing the lives of the occupants of the oncoming vehicles at risk,” Mbalula said.
On September 16, a truck travelling on the N2 collided with a light delivery van which was transporting 18 primary school children aged between five and 13 and a teacher. All the occupants of the van died at the scene.
The truck driver, 28-year-old Sibusiso Siyaya, was arrested and appeared in the Pongola magistrate’s court on Monday, where he was charged with culpable homicide.
Mbalula said prosecutors will be made aware of the RTMC report for their consideration. To mitigate against road accidents in the province, Mbalula said there would be immediate deployment of the KwaZulu-Natal Road Transport Inspectorate as well as municipal police on the identified hazardous locations.
Furthermore, the government will deploy the National Traffic Police on an “ad-hoc” basis to assist the province to identify areas with insufficient traffic policing capacity.
There will also be compulsory stopping of trucks at certain intervals to ensure speed reduction and considerate driving towards other road users. Mbalula said RAF will assist each family of the deceased with R18,000 towards the cost of the funeral.
“But the children of these families will never come back. Children died at the back of a van, an illegal scholar transport, because of a reckless driver. They killed 20 kids who had a whole future ahead of them.
This does not happen only here in KZN, it happens everywhere in the country. Nobody wants to take responsibility. People get into cars drunk.
“When you are tired you stop, you sleep. When you are drunk, you don’t drive. That is behaviour,” he said.
Investigations also showed a number of risks along the N2 which included pedestrian safety, high travelling speeds, heavy truck traffic, limited passing opportunities resulting in driver frustration, unsafe access onto the N2 and abnormal load vehicles.
RTMC used footage from the dash camera of the truck to compile its report.