The Minister of Transport Mr Ben Martins has expressed his sadness at the continued loss of lives on South Africa's roads.
This follows today's (2 August 2012) fatal crash between a truck and a minibus taxi in Vereeniging, south of Gauteng which claimed 12 lives.
Minister Martins has sent his sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost their lives.
"This morning's fatal crash is just one of a few deadly in recent days. In less than two months or so we have seen more than 50 people perish in the most dreadful ways on our roads," says Minister Martins.
The Minister believes that for the nation to see an end to these atrocious episodes, everyone needs to join hands and declare an eternal war on irresponsible driving and road carnage.
He has called on every citizen to take personal interest on road safety and ensure that our roads are not turned into killing fields.
"We need to all come together and say this has to stop. We need sustainable partnerships between government and civil society to win the war against road carnage.
Law enforcement officers must continue to do their best in ensuring that transgressors of the rules of the road are brought to book and where necessary taken off our roads," says Minister Martins.
The Department of Transport urges traffic police to adopt a zero tolerance approach towards road traffic transgressions. This includes taking off the road and discontinuing all unroadworthy vehicles.
Proactive measures such regular inspections, particularly of public transport vehicles and trucks should be the main focus of road traffic law enforcement officers while other class vehicles also receive the attention of equal measure.
Other forms of preventive interventions such as the introduction of traffic calming measures in areas identified as hot spots, heightened community involvement and personal responsibility are required to end the road carnage.
The Department of Transport is working on among other things, the creation of a National Road Safety Movement under the banner of the United Nations' Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 to foster social cohesion in the fight against this scourge.
Through the Movement, people would be required to join Road Safety Councils in their communities and ensure that they take ownership of what happens in streets and roads within their communities in partnership with local traffic police.
