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Van Reenen’s Pass has certainly seen its fair share of accidents over the years but according to Dave Steele, chief provincial inspector (station commander) Ladysmith, of the Road Traffic Inspectorate of KZN, this one was the worst in terms of the amount of trucks involved and the potential dangers that the accident presented.

According to witnesses, the driver of the tanker - belonging to Elite Dynamics - had stopped to rest at an illegal parking spot in front of the Van Reenen’s police station. It is alleged that the driver had parked and slept there for a few hours. The tanker was carrying acetone for Sasol. Just before 6.00am on Friday 10th, in misty conditions which made visibility extremely poor, the driver allegedly pulled out and crossed over the N3 – effectively doing a Uturn – to continue his southbound journey. It was then that disaster struck.

For those who don’t know the area, the Van Reenen police station is situated about mid-way between two bends on the N3, one coming out of the town of Van Reenen and the other from the top of the pass when vehicles come out of what is known as Windy Corner. Vehicles travelling from the Durban side northbound have, at that stage, picked up speed after slogging it up the long pass. From the Johannesburg side, vehicles exit the main ‘drag’ of Van Reenen round a wide bend and then have a short straight before turning into the corner towards the pass. The police station is situated almost in the middle of these two bends.

In misty conditions, doing a U-Turn at this spot is sheer madness and if the allegation is true that the driver did this, then we are talking about a multi-million Rand pile up that could easily have been avoided. And, of course, that driver who was killed would still be alive today.

The first vehicle to hit the tanker was a Mitsubishi Pajero travelling southbound from Johannesburg to Durban. Then came the first truck travelling round the bend from Windy Corner. It smashed into the tanker. From there it was a concertina type effect with seven other trucks – each of which was unable to avoid the havoc - ploughing into the wrecks to form the biggest multiple truck pile-up Steele has witnessed since joining the Ladysmith traffic force in 1985.

Over 150 personnel involved

For the next 12 or so hours, the N3 was closed as emergency personnel and other specialists worked tirelessly to clear the road and clean up the chemicals. Steele estimates that over 150 personnel were involved in the clean-up operation. These included 15 officers from the KZN Traffic Inspectorate; a number of experts and staff from Drizit and Absorbit; approximately 50 to 60 labourers; 15 firemen; 15 Free State traffic officers; about 10 ambulance men and at least 20 breakdown people. Then there were staff from the N3TC as well as about 20 SA Police Services personnel there to conduct crowd control and investigate the accident.

	The scene resembled a battlefield with the wreckage of eight trucks and one Pajero presenting a nightmare.

One of the truck drivers died on the scene and another was taken to hospital with serious injuries after emergency personnel had freed him from his crushed cab using the Jaws of Life. The occupants of the Pajero suffered minor injuries.

The scene resembled a battlefield with the wreckage of eight trucks and one Pajero presenting a nightmare. However, there was also a hidden danger. The extremely hazardous nature of the accident – apart from the spilt acetone – was that one of the trucks that ploughed into the wrecks was hauling two tanktainers filled with a highly explosive substance, also for Sasol.

"One of the vehicles that came to rest alongside the tanktainers caught alight but thanks to the quick action of one of our reservist traffic officials for the Ladysmith Municipality - who is also a reservist fire fighter - the fire was quickly doused. This action prevented what would have been a huge disaster. If those tanktainers had caught alight, Van Reenen would have been blown off the face of the earth," says Steele. The man who acted to avert such a disaster is affectionately known as ‘Freddy the Fox’ and FleetWatch reckons he should get an award for his quick and brave action.

The KZN cops were quick to arrive on the scene and immediately acted with the Free State cops to divert light motor vehicles to Oliviershoek Pass. "We stacked the heavies but we had to get the light motor vehicles moving as many of them were on their way to the Midmar Mile event and the volume of light vehicle traffic was therefore heavier than usual," says Steele.

As fate would have it, one of the  trucks using the Pass experienced a jack-knife and the pass itself had to be closed while that incident was cleared. All this added up to long delays for motorists but, according to Steele, they were able to eventually get through using the Pass. Theirs was a time cost. However, the cost to the economy and the owners of having over 200 heavy vehicles stacked up and standing idle for over 11 hours is a different matter. "For the owners, what is the cost of having over 200 trucks standing idle for over 11 non-productive hours of downtime? It’s huge and it could have been avoided," says Steele.
 

Lessons to be learnt

On the point of all this having been easily avoided, let’s look at the lessons that emanate from this accident, Before doing so, however, it is important to note that the precise actions of the driver when he pulled off from the parking spot are not exactly known and will be determined and ruled on by the court. At it stands, we are dealing with what he ‘allegedly’ did after pulling off, namely, that he allegedly turned across the road. What is a known fact, however, is that the driver had parked his rig in an illegal parking spot.

On this point, Steele has some strong words. "If the owners of the rigs put more stringent controls in place in terms of where their drivers can park and have in place strict rules against illegal parking, such accidents would not occur."

In this case, he says, the truck was parked illegally about a kilometre away from fully legal parking at the Caltex garage at Van Reenen and 20 kms away from the Tugela Truck Stop which also offers legal parking. "Yet the driver chose to park illegally on the side of the road at Van Reenen. The question I ask is: Where are Sasol’s controls over their contractors and where are the contractor’s controls over his drivers?"

Backing Steele’s sentiments is Ben Deysel, CEO of the Harrismith-based Highway Group, who was on the scene and took some of the photographs featured here. "I believe centralized control centres which monitor all heavy vehicles via satellite should be made compulsory in order to monitor driver behaviour, driving hours, speeding and illegal parking or stopping. For the sake of a few Rand paid for legal parking, this accident could have been avoided."

That Steele feels so strongly about eliminating illegal parking is based on statistics which show that most of the truck accidents on the N3 are rear-end collisions - either from driver fatigue on moving vehicles or involving vehicles illegally parked on the side of the road.

When FleetWatch put to Steele the often stated complaint by operators that there is not enough legal parking on the N3 at night thus forcing drivers to park illegally, he contested this.

"We’ve been doing audits with Con Roux from the N3TC over the past five months on the number of vehicles parked illegally compared to what is available at truck stops and our research shows that there is sufficient parking – at least between Heidelberg to Cedara which is the section the N3TC is responsible for."

Driver fatigue

He also links driver fatigue to illegal parking and here again, lays the blame not on the driver but on the operator.

"We have come across so many cases where the driver has been busy all day – and often the night before – and instead of being allowed to rest, the operator pushes him into doing yet another load from Durban to Johannesburg. The driver is tired and pushes as far as he can before he pulls off the road to rest so as to prevent falling asleep behind the wheel and killing himself. And then, when he stops, he gets a phone call from the owner asking him why he’s stopping. It ridiculous," says Steele, adding that he blames many of these fatigue related accidents on the owners who have no control on their vehicles and also push their drivers far too hard.

Making it worse, he says, is the fact that a large percentage of drivers operating on the N3 have HIV/AIDS which affects a person’s energy levels. "So the driver’s energy is down, he has two hours sleep and is then expected to drive back to Johannesburg. This guy will understandably find the first place he can to rest and that’s when the chaos starts."

FleetWatch put to him another often stated complaint of operators, namely, that they give their drivers money to pay for legal parking at truck stops but that the drivers park illegally at toll plazas and other areas so as to pocket the money.

"We know this is a problem but surely an astute operator can control this by entering into some form of arrangement with the owners of the legal truck stops whereby no cash is exchanged. I’m sure truck stop owners would take up-front deposits or even enter into a credit agreement with monthly billing for the  total amount used during the month. This is a weak excuse," he says.

On the point of operators saying they cannot afford the 60-or-so-Rand needed for legal parking due to them being paid a low rate, he also dismisses this. "It is surely the responsibility of the operator to ensure he gets a rate which enables him to operate safely in delivering his customer’s goods – and included in that safety package is the safety of his driver."

Adding credence to his views is that fact that when the KZN cops undertake a blitz on illegal parking in their province, the Free State suddenly gets clogged up with trucks for that period. The owners become aware of the blitz and tell their drivers to park in the Free State province to avoid a fine. "They then cry ‘blue murder’ when their trucks are broken it at toll-plazas but they themselves are feeding the crime."

Attitudes hardening

Accidents such as this one at Van Reenen are hardening the attitude of the cops. One lost life, over R10-million direct damage to trucks and many more millions of Rand lost to the economy due to the road closure are factors feeding this attitude.

"We are, for example, putting in stringent control measures around Van Reenen and are waiting for the legal processes to be put in place so as to ensure we are able to enforce the measures being implemented. We can’t go on like this," he says.

While on the point of owner behaviour, Steele points out that emergency personnel experienced some problems with the owners of the rigs involved in this accident when they just walked onto the scene without realising the dangers posed for all personnel working there. According to Steele, this is not a rare occurrence as it often happens that the owners of rigs involved in accidents arrive with an arrogant attitude.

"At the time of an accident, the SAPS are in control due to it being a crime scene and yet the owners often think they are in control. What they don’t realise is that it can be extremely dangerous when they walk onto an accident scene talking on a cell phone with a smoke in their hands – and you have explosive chemicals lying around. In this case, the scene was particularly hazardous and ‘cocky owners’ was the last thing we needed," says Steele.

The lesson for owners here is that when you arrive at the scene of an accident involving one of your rigs, the first thing to do is to establish who is in charge and then make contact with that person so as to establish correct procedures before you go stomping all over the place. You may just ‘stomp’ your way into a pool of acid.