|
 |
Positioned 200m apart on all national roads are these route markets. Drivers should be trained to use them in emergency situations to ensure speedy response from emergency services. |
Having a truck break down on the side of a road is not ideal in any circumstances. Not only does it result in a delivery delay to the customer but in today's climate of rampant criminal activity, there is also the very real risk of the driver being mugged - or worse killed - and the truck and load being stolen. What is needed is immediate help to get the truck up and running again.
Given this, FleetWatch points out to operators that there is a better way of getting help than is currently being followed. You will have noticed that alongside all national roads there are small boards placed about 200 metres apart with markings on them. These are route markers which all drivers and operational staff should be made aware of for, by knowing how the route marker board system works and getting drivers to use them, you will save time, money and even lives.
The photograph on this page shows one of the route markers on the N3 taken by editor
Patrick O'Leary to illustrate the workings of the system. He went to the N3TC for an explanation.
According to Con Roux, commercial manager of the N3TC, the route markers are positioned two hundred meters apart on the side of all national routes. Note that they are situated on one side only in the case where the carriageways are undivided and on both sides where they are divided by a median.
"Their primary purpose," says Roux, "is to assist emergency services to respond to the exact position any incident has occurred. This can be critical and can save - or cost - lives in the event of a major medical emergency."
 |
While on the subject
of breakdowns, the N3TC tells FleetWatch that many drivers fail to put out emergency triangles when they have a breakdown. They just desert their vehicles to go sit in the veld? Will all operators please ensure that each of their trucks has an emergency triangle and that each driver is made aware that it must be used on every breakdown. And please ensure that the triangles conform to the correct specifications - unlike this sorry little blimp pictured here. You can see it in the daylight but it's not going to be much help when it's really needed such as on Van Reenens Pass in the middle of a rainy night when mist can drop visibility down to around 10 metres. This is hardly Rocket Science stuff. It's just basic safety practise for goodness sake.
|
What is stands for
Using the example in the photograph, this is what the information stands for:
"N3 " stands for "National Route 3" between Durban and Johannesburg;
"5" stands for "Section 5". Each national route is broken up into sections which give exact distances along the route.
"51.8" stands for "51.8 km from the start of the particular section in question. According to Roux, the protocol on the N3 is that each section "starts" on the side closest to Durban, ie, the kilometre reading on the route marker board in each section will increase the further away you get from Durban and vice versa.
"S" stands for "south". This is a very important piece of information because, in the case of a divided freeway, it indicates the carriageway where the incident has taken place. On the N3, "S" indicates the carriageway from Johannesburg to Durban and "N" (north) the carriageway from Durban to Johannesburg.
"It has happened that in the absence of this information, emergency responders have travelled unnecessarily long distances on the opposite side of the road to where the incident has taken place,:" says Roux..
So, if a vehicle breaks down in a dangerous position on the N3 such as Van Reenens Pass, all the driver has to do - after putting out his emergency triangle - is to phone the customer careline on 0800 203 950, give the information displayed on the nearest route market and a route patrol vehicle will be dispatched free of charge to safeguard the scene and minimize the risk of other road users ploughing into the back of the stationary vehicle. The call-centre operator and emergency services will know exactly what the information means and will know the exact location.
FleetWatch urges all operators to train all drivers and operational centre staff on this. In may seem a small thing but according to the N3TC, it will speed things up considerably for the emergency services - and will save lives.
"Empowering drivers to be able to report the exact position of a breakdown can also be very helpful for hauliers. It's infinitely better than receiving vague reports of a breakdown "somewhere between Villiers and Warden" - a distance of 100km," says Roux.
 |
|
One of the
Out of Order SOS phones along the N3 route. Vandalism of these emergency phones by mischievous twits costs the N3TC around R1-million per year. It has, no doubt, also cost a few lives. |
Vandalism
As a matter of interest, also featured alongside this article is a photograph of one of the SOS emergency phones covered with an Out of Order wrap. This photograph was taken some time ago when
O'Leary noticed a whack of such phones being Out of Order while travelling down to Harrismith. What's the point of having SOS phones if they don't work? Surely that's shoddy service by the N3TC. Not so says Con Roux.
"That phone is just one of many that has been vandalised. This is a big problem for us and costs us around R1-million per year to fix the SOS phones that are vandalised by pure mischief-makers."
With the wide-spread use of cell-phones, these SOS phones are not as critical as they used to be but nevertheless, there are still road users without cell phones and in such cases, these SOS points become critical - especially at night when it is literally terrifying being stuck in the dark on the side of a road. Let those vandals hang their heads in shame for being the twits that they are.
|
