46 percent decline in Easter death toll
JOBURG – Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters released a preliminary Easter 2016 Road Safety Report which showed that there were 156 fatalities on the roads this year compared to 287 fatalities for the same period last year.
This represented a much welcome 46 percent decline.
Peters said, “We strategically and deliberately went out on our intensified and heightened Easter activations, road safety education and law enforcement operations much earlier than usual. We began activating our plans as early as 11 March, specifically focusing on promoting roadworthiness among public transport vehicles.
“We emphasised and ensured that all vehicles, buses and taxis that would be undertaking long-distance journeys would have to be tested for roadworthy prior to undertaking such trips.” She said the department together with its partners, the youth and people living with disabilities, undertook rigorous public education campaigns to raise awareness about road safety.”
“We used the first long weekend [19 to 21 March] as a trial run to test the resilience and sustainability of our plans. Easter period came and we were more prepared and extra resilient.
“We had held prayer sessions, mobilised the community and our traffic law enforcement fraternity were more ready and prepared. The instruction to law enforcement officers was simple, loud and very clear. Zero tolerance and no mercy for traffic violations on the road. We are emboldened to declare that today is better than yesterday and we are confident that, with these concerted efforts, tomorrow will be much better than today.”
However, the minister announced that she and her department were perturbed about a very disturbing new tendency for some motorists to drive vehicles without registration plates. “This is a deliberate ploy to avoid detection for traffic violations and to undermine our law enforcement efforts. Our instruction to law enforcement officers is that those individuals found perpetrating this particular offence should not be allowed to get away with a traffic fine only. The vehicle must be impounded and the owner forced to make alternative transport arrangements,” she said.
Peters added that they were seriously concerned about the recalcitrant behaviour of some motorists. She said 913 motorists were arrested for drunk driving and 502 were caught speeding. In Gauteng, the highest recorded speed was 206km/h.
