It was a humid, partly cloudy day. One not optimal for road trips but nevertheless, there they were.
A band of Swiss exchange students and two South Africans, traversing the land in their convoy of cars, their only wish was to arrive safely at their final weekend destination in the Drakensburg. That’s when the road, as they knew it, crumbled before their eyes.
It was a humid, partly cloudy day. One not optimal for road trips but nevertheless, there they were.
A band of Swiss exchange students and two South Africans, traversing the land in their convoy of cars, their only wish was to arrive safely at their final weekend destination in the Drakensburg. That’s when the road, as they knew it, crumbled before their eyes.
“Zat thing! It came out of nowhere! What is zis Süd African mischief?” remarked one of the frazzled youths, while dipping some dry bread into a cheese fondue.
“I got zee fright of my life! Zat pothole, it vas big like ze baby of an elephant,” said another, while munching on a triangle of Toblerone and strapping on some skis. “If zis would have happened in Switzerland, ze government vould have paid for all ze damages!” said the last, while yodelling.
Alright, so a lot of that was embellished. But the truth of the matter is that while on a road trip, a very unlucky young lady accidentally clipped a pothole and ripped two of the cars' tyres off their rims.
Aurelia, one of the exchange students, did say that if such an accident had occurred in Switzerland, the government would have definitely paid for all damages incurred, without a moment's hesitation.
If only we had such a mindset in South Africa. Unluckily for us, we really don’t, and we probably have more pot holes on our roads than there are soldiers in the Swiss Army. And military service is mandatory for them, so that’s a lot.
We do have some horrific tales of pothole perils in the South African record books though.
Back in 2008 one businessman, who was having a nice morning cycle in Durban, hit a giant pothole and only came out of the resulting coma two weeks later. After a lengthy battle with the eThekwini Municipality, they eventually agreed to pay 65% of his medical fees.
This success story is one of quite a few that have happened in South Africa. Majority of the cases involve cyclists and bikers, who are often gravely injured when striking the guerilla gouges at speed. One successful case involved a man who sustained major injuries after he was flung off the back of the bakkie he had hitched a ride from after it hit a donga in the road.
So what if you hit a particularly nasty pothole and the injuries incurred are all on your car rather than yourself?
Grahamstown based attorney Brin Brody shed some legal light on where our rights as citizens stand.
“Anyone can sue the municipality due to damages done to their vehicle due to a pothole. If the pothole in question made you swerve, and in so doing caused a collision with something else, that is also accountable to the municipality,” Brody explained. “You must enforce your rights as a citizen, and if that involves legal action then so be it.”
One of the most common damages caused by potholes are dented rims, and fixing such a problem can cost you up to R1 500. “I had to have three dents removed last year, all due to hitting potholes,” said Brody. So if you're looking for an attorney that sympathises, there you go!
In Johannesburg, some clever engineering and common sense is greatly helping reduce the city's pothole problems.
Launched in 2012, a partnership between Dial Direct, Lead SA, the Johannesburg Roads Agency and the Gauteng provincial Department of Roads and Transport brings us the Dial Direct Pothole Brigade.
The initiative has enlisted comrade 'Jetpatcher' in the war against poor road conditions. The Jetpatcher is a machine that is driven up to a hole, cleans it out, sprays bitumen into the hole (to water proof it), fills it up with tar (sprayed in at speeds of up to 100km/h) and the hole (which isn't a hole anymore) is sprinkled with stones so that motorists can drive over it without tar getting stuck to their tyres.
The (w)hole process takes between two and 10 minutes. Sounds heavenly, but the only problem is that the Jetpatcher costs about R1.5 million. Maybe we should have a collection tin at the municipality.
So there you have it, the hole story. I would just like to apologise to my Swiss friends for making them the punchline of the first paragraph, you guys are awesome!
