The Department of Human Settlements Public Safety and Liaison in the North West has already started to intensify its Arrive Alive operations heading towards the expected traffic overflow over the Easter long weekend. About 300 provincial traffic officials will be beefed-up by the municipal traffic officers and other law enforcement agencies on the major roads linking the province with other provinces and boarders.
This year the department intends to further reduce accidents on the main roads of the province following a successful campaign of the festive Arrive alive operations, where the province managed to reduce road carnage by four percent. According to MEC Nono Maloyi traffic officials must approach this campaign with aggression, commitment and apply stiffer measures in their endeavour to put an end on the senseless killings of road users.
Maloyi appealed to motorist and communities to assist government by taking responsibility of their lives and behave well on the roads. He said that the main roads of the province should be monitored 24 hours especially the N4 and N12 roads which will be linking with other main roads like the N1 that lead to Moria, where traffic is expected to increase on daily basis during and after the season.
“Officials will mainly be focusing on passenger seatbelts especially on public transport. Other offenses like drunken driving, overloading, vehicle and driver fitness, speed and reckless driving will be closely monitored and those found on the wrong side of the law will not survive the harsh measures we have employed this Easter,” warned Maloyi.
The departmental MEC has encouraged long distance drivers to rest every two hours or every 200 km of driving, so as to avoid driving with fatigue, which also regarded as one of the major contributory factors towards road fatalities. MEC Maloyi further warned pedestrians to adhere to road rules and not to drink and walk on the road. He also advised them to wear reflective clothing especially during the night.
The North West has thus far recorded six fatalities since the launch of the provincial Arrive Alive campaign. The loss of lives since the launch has further propelled the department to be more vigilant and to be merciless on offenders. “We would like to send a clear message to offenders, that punitive measures will be taken against offence without fear or favour.
The annual Arrive Alive campaign is aimed at intensifying traffic law enforcement operations and increasing visibility of law enforcement in an effort to reduce road accidents and fatalities on all major roads across the province. The campaign is in support of the National Rolling Enforcement Plan and the Decade of Action for Road safety aimed at reducing road accidents by half in 2020.
Enquiries:
Simon Lesolang Mmope
Acting Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 082 574 7621
Tel: 018 388 4826
Fax: 018 391 0328
Email: smmope@nwpg.gov.za
