Eastern Cape Transport MEC Thandiswa Marawu lambasted the public transport industry during her address at a memorial service of six road accident victims at Ilinge Township Hall on 23 May 2012 at 11h00 for allowing young and inexperienced drivers to transport people.
Police investigation points out that the horrific accident which took the lives of six commuters happened after a young taxi driver ignored the stop sign joining the N6 intersection at the Ilinge junction and collided head on with a truck that was travelling towards East London from Queenstown on 17 May 2012. Four passengers died on the spot, while the other two died on arrival at Frontier Hospital on the same day.
Four passengers are still admitted at Frontier Hospital, while two are at Frere Hospital in East London including the driver of the Minibus Taxi.
“We understand that the taxi industry in this country remains the backbone of our public transport system, but we cannot allow a situation, where business interest outweighs the value of life” said a visibly angry Marawu.
Marawu said “Our province is one of the major contributors in road crashes in this country and the N6 together with the R61, N2 between East London and Kokstad are some of the roads that continue to pose a serious challenge. Hence as the country, we have joined forces with the peoples of the world through participating actively in the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety Campaign 2011 – 2020 with a clear purpose to reduce fatalities on our roads.”
Through this campaign, we will continue with our educational and policing activities throughout the year to ensure a culture of voluntary compliance with the rules of the road she added.
The Eastern Cape Department of Transport has distributed more vehicles to various districts in the province to enhance traffic law enforcement. The intension is to ensure that traffic officers are visible 24 hours a day and help to change the perception of the public about road safety and traffic law enforcement in the province.
However, it has become evident that traffic law enforcement alone cannot solve road fatalities.
Commuters are urged to also play a role by informing law enforcement agencies of any problems they encounter, when using our roads through calling our customer care centre toll free number 0800 644 644.
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