Chloe Smith (11) of Ruimsig writes:
My name is Chloe and I’m 11 years old. It has been nearly a year since my car accident on the corner of Handicap and Hendrik Potgieter Road. It was early on a Sunday evening, already dark and slightly drizzling with rain. My mom, my friend and I were driving back home from the Cradlestone Mall direction, turning into Handicap Road. A taxi, with no lights, hit us side on. To make the situation even worse, as we pulled over to the side of the road, two guys who had just been walking by, tried to open the passenger door of our car and steal my mom’s handbag.
Not only was the accident terrifying but now we had to deal with two men trying to get into our car. Needless to say this was a highly traumatic event for me and it’s taken me a year to feel comfortable travelling at night again. We luckily had two guardian angels that stopped to help us – one man on his way to church and a woman with her two sons. I shudder to think what would have happened had they not stopped for us and so wish I had the chance to thank them again.
We see at least two to three accidents at this intersection every month. There are several nursery schools, primary and high schools in the area as well as the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden. On the other side of Hendrik Potgieter are the Spur and the athletics stadium. This means there are loads of children who travel through this intersection every day. Please don’t let this happen to another child or family. I’ve had to go for therapy and had health problems because of this accident and I don’t want any other child to go through the trauma that my mom and I did.
What will it take to get robots put up at this intersection? The distance between the Farm City robot [Viljoen Street] and the Doreen / Peter Road robot is way too far and many trucks, cars and motorbikes travel far too fast on this section. I want to make sure our roads are safer for the children in our area and if I have to do fundraising or get a petition signed to have robots installed then that is what I am prepared to do. Please somebody help – I can be contacted on Leasmith013@gmail.com
Editor’s note: Letter published unedited.
