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	Horror accidents reported on in our June edition.

I didn't know. I really didn't know that among the bodies I was looking were two men from our own trucking industry. I refer to the accident just outside Warden which we reported on in our June edition. The article solicited the following from Ted Hughes of John Dory Trucking. I got a chill while reading it. Here is what he wrote...

Your monthly issue of FleetWatch is awaited with eagerness to catch up with all the transport news and the comments you write without fear or favour. The June was bittersweet indeed. The accident scene that you witnessed was closer to home than you think because two of the deaths in the red 5-Series BMW were involved in the transport industry.

The red BMW was Neil Meston's who owned Transport Maintenance Centre in New Germany and was well known in local transport circles here in the Durban area. The front seat passenger was Bart Standeavon who was in management of the transport maintenance department of the Thekwini Municipality.

Bart was divorced and had custody of his son and daughter. Kathy Meston, a nursing sister working in the local doctors' rooms, was in the back seat with Gary, their 14-year-old son alongside her. Gary was asleep and survived the accident with a badly fractured femur and broken wrist and spent several days in intensive care. He is still on crutches but making good progress. The injuries were horrendous to Neil, Kathy and Bart.

We had all spent Easter camping at Inanda Dam and Neil, as always, was the organiser and chief cook, braaing for all the families in our group. To enjoy the family time we had lazing around waterskiing, braaing and relaxing was a memory to treasure. We don't have the luxury of time off in the transport industry.

I received the call around 8pm and there was nothing we could physically do until the next morning as friends from Johannesburg had taken charge of Gary's well-being and organised for him to be sent through to Durban by ambulance. The following morning, several close friends met at Neil's workshops to see how we would organise the immediate future of the youngsters who were now orphans.

To save more grief on the grandparents, I drove with two friends to Warden to recover whatever personal effect there were from the remains of the car and then on to Phuthaditjhaba near Harrismith to formally identify the bodies. All accident victims from the Free State are taken to that mortuary apparently.

From the conversations I had with the recovery teams and SAPS, the incident allegedly happened when an elderly Sierra lost a wheel and sat down in the road. The BMW 3-Series series took evasive action and hit the 5-Series head on. Four people died in the 3-Series and three good friends in the 5-Series. I photographed all the vehicles involved as you did, but I also photographed the Sierra in the tow truck operator's yard. Another wheel and tyre fitted, not a scratch on the car (from the accident) and the driver walked away. How ironic that two professional vehicle maintenance personnel lose their lives to an alleged unroadworthy vehicle!

After doing the formal identification at the mortuary in Phutaditjhaba, we retired to an office to fill in the paperwork. With two officials doing the paperwork to the background of a radio blaring - and numerous forms being screwed up by mistake by them - the 8 o'clock news came on and the lead story was a report of another head-on accident in Pretoria, again caused by an alledgedly unroadworthy vehicle with the result of a further five deaths. Twelve people dead in 24 hours caused by unroadworthy vehicles!!

The personal ramifications of these tragedies in both financial and personal grief for the families left - especially the orphans - are truly horrendous. When will the government take responsibility for this type of carnage? Get all unroadworthy vehicles off our roads.

Ted Hughes
John Dory Trucking (Pty) Ltd

Many people, when referring to the horrendously high crime rate in our country, refer to the fact that in days gone by, you would read of someone being hijacked, killed, raped, mugged or in some way victimised. It was far distant from you. As crime was allowed to escalate - and I say allowed as nowhere near what should have been done to stop it was done by Government - the victims got closer and closer to home. The dinner table conversation changed from "I read of someone who was hijacked to "I know someone who was hijacked" to the eventual "I was hijacked".

I recall speaking at a conference back in 1995 where I asked those in the audience who had been hijacked to put up their hands. Two out of an audience of around 100 raised their hands. I then asked who in the audience knew someone personally who had been hijacked. About 10 hands went up.

I did the same exercise at a seminar some years later and the number of hands that went up in response to the same questions was much higher. Crime was on the increase. If one had to ask the same questions today, there would be a sea of hands raised.

FleetWatch warned in those days that unless something was done to stop crime, it would escalate to the point where it would run like wildfire through our society. And that day has arrived. This year alone, 54 police officers have been killed. Innocent motorists have been murdered in cold blood on the side of roads. How many house break-ins, muggings, smash and grabs, rapes - the list is endless - take place on a daily basis?

The point is that the streets no longer belong to the good citizens of South Africa. They have been taken over by the criminals. It's now got to the point where the police themselves are calling for better protection, more powerful weapons and more training.

Same scenario on our roads
The same scenario is being played out on our roads in terms of accidents. As it stands, 14 000 people are being killed on our roads every year. That is totally unacceptable and as this magazine has stated in past issues, should be more than enough to capture the attention of our President and spur him into taking decisive action.

It's now getting to the stage where dinner table conversations are changing from "I read of someone who was killed in a road accident" to "I know someone who was killed in an accident". Are you going to wait for the time when the seat you occupied at that dinner table will be empty and the others will say: "He was killed in a road accident." I personally have lost both my brother and my sister in road accidents.

That's what the letter from Ted Hughes did for me. It made me realise just how close to home road accidents are getting to everyone out there. Here were two men whose bodies I saw on the road and who turned out to be from the trucking industry. In governmental statistics, they add another two to the total. In real life, they were personalities who were loved and gave out love. And there are children left behind.

Did you know these men and women? Many people in KwaZulu-Natal did? Probably many of you reading this didn't but, like the crime scenario, it is coming closer to home. My wish is that death never comes into your home through an accident. It is not a nice visitor. So what are you doing to prevent that unwelcome visitor knocking on your front door?