And so it begins…
'We are going to be ruthless during this festive season' – Road Traffic Management Corporation.
Traffic police across the country will be clamping down motorists this festive season.
In a bid to curb collisions this festive season the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and government will deploy 17 000 traffic officers across the country’s roads.
Makhosini Msibi, RTMC CEO said traffic officers will be denied leave during the festive season to ensure there will be enough manpower on South Africa’s roads.
“We have 21 000 officers throughout the country, but we will be working with an average of 17 000. There will be officers on the road after every 30kms,” said Msibi.
Officers will be conducting visible policing, while others will be recording speeds between the different points motorists will be passing.”
Msibi said one of the biggest contributors to collisions on roads is speeding.
He calls on all South Africans to stick to the speed limit and added that ghost cars will be on the road to deal with speedsters. A ghost car is an unmarked police car used by traffic police as a decoy.
We are going to be ruthless during this festive season,” he said.
The ‘ruthless’ plan of action does not end at speed and the roadworthiness of cars will also be checked.
“There will be mobile weighing and testing stations on the road to ensure vehicles are roadworthy. We are not only going to be focusing on taxis because the majority of accidents are caused by private vehicles. There will be queues at the weighing bridges, it is a necessary inconvenience,” Msibi said.
The weighing and testing stations would also force people to rest and freshen up before continuing with their journey, he said. He added that people should refrain from timing their trips and should rather focus on getting to their destinations in one piece.
“We are impatient and don’t respect each other [on the roads]. People calculate the time and say, I will leave Pretoria at such a time and I will be in Durban in five hours. Can we desist from that? Can we push it to eight hours?” he said.
Since the beginning of December, 218 people have died in accidents throughout the country. The number is slightly higher compared to the same period last year when 205 people died.
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