Bakwena responds to community concerned about road safety

On the 28th of April this Blog featured a story titled “Community activism required for road safety”. This featured the plea from a concerned community in Rustenburg next to the N4 Bakwena highway – a plea for more attention to road safety in this area.

This was shared with the National Roads Agency and I am pleased to reveal that a response was received earlier today from the Operationa Manager of the Bakwena Concessionaire.

I would like to quote from the response:

“We have been in discussion with the …[the concerned citizen]. Bakwena as the concessionaire for the N1N4 toll road is actively involved with the safety on the roads operated by them.

There are regular meetings with the traffic authorities along the route (North West Province, Limpopo, Gauteng and Tshwane) to discuss safety and enforcement issues. Every incident is investigated by Bakwena to determine the cause of the accidents. The portion of road from Brits to Rustenburg has been monitored and pedestrian fences /bridge installed. In addition the drivers of vehicles have been observed to be particularly aggressive when overtaking slower moving vehicles forcing them into the yellow line or overtaking on the left shoulder on this section of road.

Bakwena currently operated the Mantsole Traffic Control Centre on the N1 and will be operating the Bapong TCC on the N4 when it opens later this year. These facilities do contribute to reducing the number of overloaded and unroadworthy trucks on the roads (both toll and parallel routes).

A public meeting is being arranged next week with the Rustenburg Association of Business where issues including safety will be discussed……”

The Road Safety & Arrive Alive Blog would like to extend a word of appreciation to the National Roads Agency and the Bakwena Concessionaire in addressing these concerns. It is important for road safety that the public can share in road safety efforts and that there is cooperation with other role players and road authorities.

We would like to invite the public to share their concerns via this Blog and the Arrive Alive Road Safety Website.