Riot Hlatshwayo

Riot Hlatshwayo

Motorists have finally knocked some sense into the Mpumalanga department of roads and transport after months of complaints about unmarked speed humps that posed a danger to them.

The department installed 10 speed humps, about 50m apart, at Saselani on the Thulamahashe-Bushbuckridge road - but somehow failed to paint the to make them visible.

The humps were installed after several pupils were knocked down by vehicles on the spot.

"Shading the humps is helpful to us as motorists because we are able to see them and drive slowly over them," one motorist, Johannes Hlaise, said yesterday.

"I saw workers from the department of roads and transport busy painting the dangerous humps." Hlaise said. "It's something to be thankful for."

Workers who were painting the humps said the department had received numerous complaints from motorists, who nearly got involved in road accidents because of the humps.

"The humps are good for the community's protection against speeding drivers," one of the workers said. "They had to be painted so that motorists can see them in time,"

The unmarked humps caused a pane of glass to fall from a loaded truck about two months ago when the driver did not slow down as he drove over them.

The truck was travelling from Nelspruit to Thulamahashe to deliver the glass when the accident happened.

Many people had complained about the unmarked humps.

The humps are on a busy road that joins Bushbuckridge and Thulamahashe, a township that, among other things, boast a shopping complex, petrol stations, government departments and schools.