Dear Director Gerneke
At 08:15 today (Monday 16 December 2013), the image below was tweeted on Twitter. I also happen to know Mr Pinto who took the photograph and he is fully prepared to make a written statement if required to do so.
This trap was set up by your officers on the M1 North just before Jan Smuts off ramp. Apparently, the barrier was displaced some months ago after a crash and the Johannesburg Roads Agency has not put it back in place. It is jutting out FACING oncoming traffic.
I completely understand that the motivation of your department is to make money from speeding violations for the City of Johannesburg without any regard for road safety, but this is ridiculous!
Deliberately allowing a road safety crash barrier designed to mitigate the severity of collisions to continue to be a potentially fatal road hazard and then placing one of your camera operators behind it is despicable and tantamount to attempted murder.
You repeatedly allude to the fact that camera speed prosecution authorisations are applied for and granted based on a number of factors, inter alia the prevalence of fatal collisions at each spot. Is it your intention to create an environment where fatalities are assured if people crash so you may retain these authorisations, which have additionally been in place for more than FIVE YEARS now? Surely if your mobile speed camera trapping exercises were effective, they would not still be in place at the same spot 5 years later?
I urge the Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Tom Dicker to immediately withdraw your authorisation to print money at this site and furthermore discipline you and your staff for deliberately creating a road hazard which could easily have fatal consequences. I also urge him to review all of your authorisations, many of which have been in place for similar periods to this one.
Advocate Dicker, if you wish me to lay a more formal complaint on this matter, kindly let me know.
Yours sincerely,
Howard Dembovsky
National Chairman – Justice Project South Africa (NPC)