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B u r g e r Wednesday 28 March 2012
WEST COAST VILLAGE OPENING END APRIL www.starkeayresgc.co.za
Tel: 021 910 6500 Fax: 021 910 6501
Dangerous turn
Traffic along Otto du Plessis road was disrupted last Wednesday when a Volvo container truck overturned on a bend in the road close to the Racecourse Road intersection. The left hand lane was obstructed and the road was closed at 08:26 and reopened at 19:17. The truck was carrying three 10 tonne rolls of silver coil and could not be recovered by conventional towing equipment due to the weight of the container. At the accident scene, AR Towing tried unsuccessfully to move and recover the cargo and truck with its heavy duty hydraulic equipment. Specialist equipment and a flatbed truck were sent from Saldanha Bay to recover the vehicle. The driver was slightly injured and was taken to the nearest hospital by ambulance. City of Cape Town traffic officers assisted by Metro Police and law enforcement officers were on duty to assist in regulating the traffic flow Photo: Dave Colins
) Blunder puts woman in the dock
Taxi ‘owner’ in court LEON STEENKAMP
A Table View resident’s fictional ownership of a minibus taxi had her ending up in court despite an obvious blunder. Leslie Cousins was shocked when the sheriff of the court came knocking on her door in September last year with a court summons. The summons originated from a traffic fine that was issued in Elsies River earlier for an illegal threepoint turn. “I refused to sign for the summons and even opened up my
garage door to show the messenger of the court that I do not own a taxi,” a baffled Cousins said. She immediately followed up the case with the City of Cape Town traffic department. “I called the 086 number and the woman confirmed that I don’t own the taxi in question,” she said. Cousins asked what she needs to do to bring the mistake to the attention of the traffic department. “I was told to contact the traffic manager. I faxed through an affidavit explaining the case. My fax receipt showed that it went through
and I did not receive any other correspondence after that,” she says. Cousins then forgot about the court appearance. “In that time my friend returned from the UK and when I went to prepare their house for them, we found that it had been burgled. I had so much on my plate at the time, I certainly wasn’t concerned with a taxi that I didn’t own.” When Cousins opened her post at the end of December she was confronted with a warrant for her arrest due to contempt of court. “I lawyer friend told me that I
now was in the wrong because I ignored the court appearance, which I understand. After much running around I eventually had to see the prosecutor and pay a R300 admission of guilt fine for the contempt of court charge. The prosecutor squashed the original traffic fine but he was more interested in how I got the summons in the first place,” she said. Although Cousins is irritated at the waste of time and trouble the incident led to she is more worried about the reason for the blunder. “I don’t know whether it was a
typing error or whether there is a taxi driver out there with my personal details and who is using it fraudulently. I don’t know whether the traffic department has followed up on the case but I have not received any explanation,” she says. Cousins was reminded of the her experience after reading about a similar incident that happened to Bernhard Mauderer from Eversdal (“Many number of owners”, TygerBurger, 21 March). . At the time of going to press, the city did not yet have a response ready.