Over a hundred deaths in Easter road accidents
JOBURG - In a bid to reduce road carnage over the Easter weekend, increased police visibility and more roadblocks were deployed across the country.
However, by 21 April at least 103 people had been killed in as many as 80 accidents on the country’s roads.
On the same day, 1 900 vehicles entered Gauteng from KwaZulu-Natal every hour while about 2 389 entered Gauteng from Mpumalanga per hour.
However, the Road Traffic Management Corporation had yet to confirm the total number of fatalities during the Easter period, as the data was still being compiled.
Last year, a total of 201 fatal crashes were recorded during the Easter break in which 241 people died. This was up from 217 deaths in 2012.
Then transport minister, Ben Martins announced that many of the victims in both year’s statistics were pedestrians, but it was still unclear if this was the case this year.
More than 79 000 fines were issued over Easter last year, 1 039 licences suspended and 1 024 vehicles impounded, while 864 motorists were arrested for drunk driving.
In Joburg, there was a strong police visibility as Metro police were out in their numbers conducting roadblocks across the city.
A high number of speedsters were caught by police and 69 drunk drivers were arrested from Friday until Sunday, Metro police spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said.
According to Minnaar, two men were arrested in separate incidents on the N1; one for driving at 217km/h in a 120km zone, while the other was caught doing 206m/h.
He added that through a joint operation between Metro police and Gauteng traffic police, free roadworthiness tests were conducted on hundreds of taxis and buses.
Meanwhile, the South African National Roads Agency said road accidents would continue until motorists’ behaviour was addressed.
“Until a number of road safety issues have been addressed, we can expect the carnage, specifically around holiday seasons, to continue,” said Sanral road safety manager Elna Fourie.
The roads agency planned a road safety event at the University of Pretoria on 22 April which it hoped would see a number of South Africans pledging responsible driving behaviour.
