Faulty trucks hit for thousands
2003-11-12 22:44
Pretoria - In a concerted bid to cut down on the carnage on local roads, Tshwane metro police have issued fines totalling about R845 000 to truck drivers and owners with unroadworthy vehicles in the past month.
Since October 7, a second compulsory checkpoint has come into operation.
Situated on the Ben Schoeman Highway under the Trichard Road flyover, compels all heavy-duty drivers to stop and have their vehicles inspected before entering the city.
This comes in the wake of countless accidents in Pretoria central involving runaway trucks.
A report on runaway vehicles and a plan to prevent accidents will be released by a metro council task force on Friday.
According to superintendent J P Malan of metro police, 4 944 heavy vehicles have undergone roadworthy inspections at the checkpoint since its inception.
The checkpoint is manned 24 hours a day.
According to him, so far 66 trucks have been declared completely unroadworthy while 132 were fined for being overloaded.