The Department of Transport, Safety and Liaison continues to have a successful Festive Season Road Traffic Safety Plan since its launch on 25 October 2013. The Festive Season Road Traffic Safety Plan incorporates a number of operations including roadblocks and normal traffic operations but not limited to these.
The plan is a detailed strategy for the festive season operations aimed at not only ensuring safety on the roads, curbing road fatalities but also law enforcement. The plan is being enforced successfully by dedicated teams of officials with stakeholders such as SAPS, Home Affairs, Sanral and Northern Cape Tourism Authority joining some of our operations.
The Festive Season Road Traffic Safety Plan operations have been ongoing since the launch while the 365 Days of Road Safety operations have continued as we enforce road safety and law enforcement daily.
Traffic operations and Road Safety operations continue to unfold across the province. Since 1 December 2013, 438 summonses have been issued to transgressors for various offences such as vehicle defects (lights not working, tyres, etc). Roadblocks held across the province have recorded 10 684 cars stopped and from these 387 drivers were tested for alcohol and only 1 was arrested.
A matter of concern that has materialized is the high number of unlicensed drivers to the tune of 133 compared to the 39 drivers failing to carry their licenses. This alarming number of unlicensed drivers on the roads is a great concern and we appeal to vehicle owners to not give their vehicles to unlicensed drivers.
Also since the start of December 1 481 vehicles were weighed during this period at weighbridges across the Province. We also appeal to all road users to abide by the rules of the road: don’t drink and drive, buckle up, takes regular breaks while driving either every 200km or 2hrs or change drivers. Pedestrians must be visible on the roads and respect the rules of the road. Cyclist must be respected as road users and they must keep to the cyclists’ lane and be visible.
We expect our roads to be busy with most industries closing shop tomorrow, Friday 20 December. The N1 from Johannesburg to Cape Town and the N9 towards Eastern Cape are currently some of our busy roads. The N1 traffic is increasing gradually and we expect the N12 to pick up from Friday 20 December 2013.
Our teams of traffic officials and road safety officers remain committed to the call of duty and we request communities to work together with them and respect the rules of the road. The minister for Transport, Honourable Dipuo Peters will speak on the status of road fatalities in due time.
For any media clarity please contact:
Keitumetse Moticoe, Communication Officer
Cell: 074 251 6567
Tel: 053 839 1769
E-mail: kmoticoe@ncpg.gov.za or kgmoticoe@gmail.com
Twitter: @NCape_dtsl
