The death of the 29-year-old Eric Seane from Kimberley in a motor vehicle accident on the R31 road between Kimberley and Daniëlskuil has put this notorious stretch of road in the spotlight again.
Seane was killed when he apparently hit a pothole, or swerved to miss it, after overtaking a vehicle on the R31.
The vehicle he was driving left the road and overturned, killing him and injuring his passenger.
The R31 is seen as one of the most crucial roads in the Northern Cape used as a route to haul material from the mines in the Lime Acres, Postmasburg, Kathu and Kuruman areas, and is used by apparently thousands of trucks every day.
Still, parts of the road are narrow, full of potholes and have sharp indents on the road shoulders.
“You will not believe how many trucks and other vehicles loose their side-mirrors every day after hitting each other while on the road,” a regular road user says.
Loosing a mirror or even a tyre or rim is “acceptable” he says, but more and more accidents happen on the road in which people are seriously injured or dies.
This raises the question once again on when this piece of road will be properly maintained, or preferably upgraded to be able the handle the traffic volume.
“The department is currently busy with routine road maintenance on the road between Kimberley and Daniëlskuil,” says Crystal Robertson, spokesperson for the Department of Roads and Public Works.
“The main challenge is the route being used by trucks on a daily basis to haul manganese from the mines.
“The department has already started with widening of the road section between Ulco and Koopmansfontein.
“The project is done in phases – the first two phases have been completed,” she says.
She was not able to say when the next phase would commence.
Rennie Andrias, head of communication at the Northern Cape Department of Transport, Safety and Liaison, was not able to provide the statistics of accidents and the amount of vehicles using the road, before going to print.
“We will need some time to collate the information on the number of accidents on that road,” he says.
“We have many accidents that are due to human error and other circumstances like the condition of roads or weather conditions.
“We encourage road users to please obey the rules of the road at all times.
“Please ensure that you have sufficient time to travel in order to avoid speeding.”
The part of the R31 closer to Kimberley, near the Wildebeest Kuil Rock Art Centre and Platfontein, is another area of concern. Here the road is surrounded by a massive sewage and fresh water pan – caused by leaking pipes.
The water level is centimeters away from the road surface and no less than three vehicles have ended up in the water.
Although the severe sewage leak was first reported in 2016, the problem has not been solved yet.
In April 2021 the DA appealed to the Green Scorpions to intervene, and the EFF named it “Lake Zamani” after the premier of the Northern Cape, Dr Zamani Saul.
The water permanently surrounding this part of the road is posing a threat to its infrastructure, and a collapse of the road – with a heavily loaded truck going past the spot nearly every 30 seconds – is feared.
