Keeping our streets safe

Bright and early on the morning of 31 January, officers from the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) parked their vehicles outside Royal Kings School in Florida to start their latest road safety initiative.

JMPD had received numerous reports regarding the chaos that occurs on Goldman Street before and after school hours. Motorists rush past the school, learner transport vehicles are overloaded, children are dropped off anywhere and struggle to cross the street, and reckless drivers endanger the lives of pedestrians.

Under the watchful eye of Officer Ouma Morudi, JMPD did what they could to improve the situation. As part of their Back to School initiative, the officers pulled over reckless drivers, overloaded school transport vehicles, and vehicles that looked unsafe.

Officer Morudi said the main goal for the morning was to educate, not to punish. That is why the officers didn’t only pull vehicles over. They also went to the learner transport vehicles that had stopped outside the school without issues to give them pamphlets and safety tips for while they are transporting the learners to and from school.

Apart from reminding them about the legal number of passengers that can be transported in each vehicle, the officers gave the drivers helpful tips – not only to ensure safety, but as precautions too. One of the tips was that drivers needed to have a list of all the learners they transport, as well as contact details for their guardians. Morudi reflected on how, all too often, when a school transport vehicle is involved in an accident, they run into problems identifying the learners or their parents. If a child is hurt, they are not sure who the child is or they can’t get contact details to notify guardians of what has happened, and possibly the fact that the learner would need medical attention.

The Back to School initiative was brought about with the hopes of educating taxi drivers and learner transport drivers on the importance of passenger safety.

A few officers stepped in and took to directing traffic on the busy road, stopping the onslaught of cars every so often to allow learners to cross the street.

Unfortunately, the first day of the initiative didn’t reach the desired number of people. This is because, after seeing the police vehicles, many drivers dropped the children off around the corner or on different streets, and avoided Goldman Street all together. Despite the fact that people seemed to be behaving around the police, or avoiding them, there were positive outcomes to the morning’s efforts.

The JMPD officers said they would contact the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) to get pedestrian crossings painted on the streets surrounding the schools, and to figure out ways to make the traffic flow more effective and safe. Officer Morudi also said that her team, as well as the Region C Operations team, would be working together to have higher visibility in peak hours. They are working towards having crossing guards and police officers there in the morning until solutions can be found to the current safety issues.

This community outreach programme will also be aiming to present a first aid workshop to learner transport drivers through their partnership with a learner transport association known as Siyazivukula.

Officer Morudi said as part of their road safety initiatives they are planning to visit several Roodepoort schools and taxi ranks, and they will also be doing anti-bullying campaigns in the near future.

Later in the day, the same group of JMPD officers went to DORLJOTA (Dobsonville, Roodepoort, Leratong, Johannesburg, Taxi Association) to speak to the taxi drivers about road safety and how they can work together to make the roads safer and alleviate traffic congestion.