Speed and be jailed this Easter, warn authorities

With only a few days to go before the Easter weekend, 11 people have already lost their lives following a head-on collision involving a minibus taxi and a car in the North West province.

The incident happened about 10km outside Wolmaranstad on Saturday.

Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, Thabo Senatle, director of communications in the provincial department of Community Safety, said it appeared some of the deceased passengers from the minibus taxi were ZCC churchgoers.

Some of the roads in North West that are expected to be accident prone include the N4 from Zeerust to Rustenburg, N18 from Taung towards Mafikeng, N14 from Kuruman and Vryburg to Ventersdorp towards Gauteng, as well as N12 from Wolmaranstad and Potchefstroom towards Gauteng.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Johannesburg metro police, Superintendent Wayne Minnaar, said some of the roads that are expected to be busy this week include the N1 to Moria, N3 to KwaZulu-Natal, N12 to North West, N1 south to Free State and the Eastern Cape, N4 to Mpumalanga.

Minnaar warned motorists not to speed.

“If you are caught [doing] 40km over the required speed limit, we won’t issue a ticket or a fine, we will send you straight to jail where you will spend the entire Easter weekend,” Minnaar said.

Spokesperson for the national department of transport Ismail Mnisi said according to statistics from 2016, passengers and pedestrians were the most vulnerable.

“We want to appeal to pedestrians to make sure that they cross roads where it is safe to do so, and they must also wear bright clothes, especially at night.”

– stevent@citizen.co.za