The Minister of Transport has recently emphasized the importance of partnerships to address road safety in South Africa. Private companies have expertise in technology that could assist road safety authorities in addressing threats to road safety – and we need to use this expertise in the drive towards safer roads.
One of these road safety threats where the private sector can play an important role is addressing the dangers of overloading. Overloading is the cause of frustration for many law enforcers who witness how many unsafe overloaded vehicles on the roads threaten other road users and contribute to the deterioration of roads!
The Arrive Alive website was provided with information on technology that could assist traffic officials in detecting overloaded vehicles. The product MASS-5000 is a portable weigh-in-motion system ideal for pre-screening to detect overloaded trucks. Those Municipalities and Road Authorities who succeeded to acquire systems are reaping the benefits. They can now screen all their secondary roads and increase the effectiveness of their static law enforcement weigh bridge. This system is like a breathalyzer for detecting overloaded axles and vehicles.
The majority of municipalities are desperately in need of MASS Systems, but they just don’t have the funds. Mikros Systems offers this equipment to the Government Sector at dealer price, but still it is just about impossible for the smaller Municipalities to get funds approved.
Mikros Systems has offered to provide more information on the technology available to reduce overloading. Mikros Systems is a local company with 30 years experience in road management equipment and software for detailed traffic analysis. The company works in conjunction with SANRAL, TRAC and various other road authorities assisting them to collect data of traffic on the roads. There are at present a number of high-speed-weigh-in-motion sensors on the main routes. These stations provide National Authorities and Road Planners with valuable statistics of the loads on our roads.
Mikros Systems is hosting a few field days where the company works with the authorities to monitor some of their secondary roads. These roads are really being abused by most illegal operators who overload for their own gain. These roads are their escape routes bypassing the law enforcement weigh bridges.
Mikros Systems will be doing some pre-screening together with Magaliesburg Municipality on one of their roads that really suffers. Mikros Systems has invited anyone interested to get involved in the efforts or to visit such an exercise. This one will take place on Thursday 26th of November from 15h00 – 18h00.
[Information provided by Mikros Systems]
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