Traffic laws not policed
How does Bitou Traffic Department decide by who and how our traffic laws are imposed in Plettenberg Bay?
I happened to be standing outside BI Kwikspar collecting for PAWS on Friday June 18 when I observed the following action of a local traffic officer.
He parked his car on the sand opposite the centre, got out and stood on the side of the road. I thought he was watching for traffic doing U-turns into the parking. But no, I observed one vehicle stopping right in front of him (if he had been 200cm further out it would have driven over his feet), holding up all the traffic behind it, and then proceeding to do a U-turn into the parking area.
What did he do? Nothing!
It turned out he was looking for people not coming to a complete standstill at the Longships Drive stop sign.
A few moments after this first incident, he jumped into his car and with sirens blaring chased off after an SUV.
I didn’t know what they had done as I was still busy watching the first car battling to manoeuvre into the parking.
The officer eventually came back and again watched cars doing U-turns into the shopping area. Again, he only pulled up an SUV for not coming to a complete stop.
I am sure nobody has been killed for slowing down and not coming to a dead stop on the Longships turnoff, but there must have been many near-misses with people doing U-turns. Why was a solid white line painted on the road in that particular area if not to stop such accidents?
I was told that a few weeks back there were no less than three traffic officers standing in that particular area, seemingly doing nothing.
Drive around Plettenberg Bay and observe the many motorists talking on their cellphones and not concentrating on the traffic around them. By the amount one sees, it seems our traffic officers are not doing anything about it.
I know we have a new Chief of Protection Services and as the Traffic Department falls under him, I might ask if the new broom is really trying to sweep Plett’s streets clean?
Plett Motorist
Source: CXpress