DISTRESSED citizens are renewing their efforts to curb speeding on the R63 through Bedford.
This follows a motor accident which left the driver dead and two of the three passengers seriously injured on Sunday afternoon.
A car that was allegedly travelling at well over the speed limit went off the road just after the bridge coming into Bedford from Adelaide.
The vehicle sheared past a sturdy metal fence, side-swiped a tree, then spun and overturned.
The squeal of tyres and the bang were heard all over the village.
So violent was the impact that “the engine was flung out and landed 15m up the road,” according to Jisreel Swartz, who lives two blocks away from the crash site, on Van Riebeeck Street (R63).
Within half an hour a crowd had gathered to view the wreckage.
“There were more than 30 vehicles parked on both sides of the narrow road,” said Lana Blom of the nearby Eagle Hout Padstal.
“Small children (were) wandering around. (It was) another accident waiting to happen!”
“The racing up and down this road goes on day and night,” said Swartz. He agrees with the perception that it is not only ‘hotrods’ on a joyride breaking the speed limit.
“Many people, from all walks of life, drive up and down here too fast.”
Liz Beyers, who also lives on Van Riebeeck Street, is particularly concerned about heavy trucks and double-decker passenger coaches accelerating at alarming speeds.
“This is a main pedestrian route from the township to the CBD. The street lights are not maintained so the rough sidewalk is not lit.
“Inevitably people walk on the road. Stray cows and goats wander all over.”
“We need speed humps,” said councillor Cecilia Auld, who has been campaigning for three years to get SANRAL to install speed humps on the Donkin Street and Van Riebeeck Street sections of the R63.
“It’s the only way to stop the speeding. In November a child was knocked down in Donkin Street and now this tragic waste of life!”
She is renewing her efforts this week with a petition posted all over town.
