Roberta Irene Slade, Muizenberg
I am writing this to express my concern of the safety of others in Muizenberg. I have been living in Muizenberg for most of my life, and I have always seen it as a very safe place to walk in and outside during all hours of the day, but, in recent years, I have seen a drastic change in the safety within the street.
I recently read the story about Kayla Gelant, the past matriculant of Muizenberg High School, who was seriously injured in a hit-and-run on Prince George Drive.
I have been living in a house, along Prince George Drive, Muizenberg, for about three years, and it is very worrying to think about what happened.
I would like to demand a change in the way vehicles drive in this area. I know there are speed limits and traffic officers enforcing the rules of the road, but I would like to see a speed trap on that road.
I want justice for this woman because often criminal cases in South Africa go unsolved and are closed without people getting justice.
I related to this story because the victim and I are very close in age and everything has changed so drastically for her just as she was gaining her independence.
* Cape Town traffic services spokesperson Chief Inspector Maxine Bezuidenhout responds:
The City of Cape Town recognises that speeding, and the resultant danger to the public, is a challenge across the metropole.
To this end, speed-mitigation measures are introduced wherever possible, ranging from permanent installations like speed humps, where the road conditions permit, to ongoing speed enforcement. Speed humps are not practical on a roadway like Prince George Drive, so an alternative could be the installation of fixed cameras.
Investigations will be done on this specific location and it will be taken to the camera review committee to determine if the location meets the criteria.
Between March and early June, 10 enforcement operations on this stretch of Prince George Drive, recorded 684 speeding cases.
A CCTV camera was installed earlier this year along Prince George Drive between Military Road and Capricorn Park. Additional cameras are in the pipeline but are budget dependent.
Ultimately, safer roads require road users to play their part by adhering to the speed limits and other traffic laws.