Municipalities should assist to curb road crashes

Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison MEC Pat Ngomane is planning to engage all mayors from different municipalities to plan together and come up with strategies that will curb road crashes in the province. This comes after the preliminary statistics presented by Minister of Transport Mr Joe Maswanganyi that crashes have increased during the Easter weekend compared to year 2016.

In year 2016, 84 crashes which claimed 21 lives were recorded while 28 lives were lost in 92 crashes this year in the province. Final results are still be consolidated due to other victims who died in hospitals as a result of serious injuries from these crashes. The 92 crashes left at least 71 people hospitalized with serious injuries and 91 slightly injured.

MEC Ngomane believes that engaging municipalities will be extremely helpful especially during long and busy weekends or holidays as the evaluations made have shown that most of these accidents happened on local and regional roads.

The MEC adds that the engagement will also enable the province to come up with an integrated plan that will see all agencies working together 365 days of the year.

“It really doesn’t help us to plan and work alone when these crashes are affecting us all. Our working together as government should also entail dealing with challenges together and planning as people who work together for optimal utilisation of resources. We must execute one plan and have one objective as a province, and in that way we will win the fight against road carnage. A meeting with mayors and public safety councillors will soon be convened with a special on dealing with road crashes,” he says.

The MEC says traffic officers are working hard but more still needs to be done as the statistics have shown that there was an increase. He said that the department will continue with programmes aimed at educating road users about road safety in order to change driver behaviour as it is proven to be the main contributor to road crashes.
Traffic officers on the same long weekend issued 6 817 fines for different traffic violations in the whole province and discontinued 145 un-roadworthy vehicles. On the same note, 231 drivers were arrested, 28 for speeding, 200 for drunk driving and others for reckless and negligent driving and other violations.

The MEC thanks all law enforcers for working hard saying disobedient drivers must know that they have no place in this province. He adds that the law enforcement and visibility will continue as the country is heading for another long weekend next week. He also appeals to community members to report people who are not using the roads safely in order to contribute towards making our roads safer.

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