Given the high number of fatalities recorded on South African roads this Festive Season, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), together with its provincial and municipal traffic enforcement partners will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that the coming New Year’s weekend is a safe one for road users.
Multi-disciplinary roadblocks, roadside checkpoints, roving patrols, roving stop and checks, ghost squad patrols and patrol vehicles equipped with moving violation recorders and automatic number plate recognition devices will be some of the approaches that will be employed to get errant motorists to behave.
Motorists travelling in severely un-roadworthy vehicles will, over and above a fine, also have the license disc removed and the vehicle discontinued. The same will apply to speedsters who deliberately remove registration plates, display fraudulent plates, obscure plates or use hairspray or laser jammers in order to defeat speed cameras.
From 1 October to 27 December 2010 more than four million (4,179,095) vehicles and drivers have been stopped and checked and more than 1,8 million fines issued for various traffic offences. More than 25 000 un-roadworthy vehicles, including several buses and taxis, were discontinued from use. More than 4 000 drunk drivers were arrested.
One thousand and fifty one (1 051) people have been arrested in the past week alone for drinking and driving. Motorists are warned that traffic authorities around the country will step up enforcement over this critical weekend to remove drunken drivers. “We will show no mercy. If we catch you drinking and driving, you will be arrested and if convicted, have a criminal record for life,” said Mr Collins Letsoalo, Acting CEO of the RTMC.
“The National Rolling Enforcement Plan as part of the Make Roads Safe campaign will continue with this consistent, focused and zero tolerance enforcement approach through-out the year,” he added. To date, the preliminary statistics of people who have died on South African roads since 1 to 28 December 2010 are 1 149 out of 958 fatal crashes. There were 1 304 fatalities out of 1 013 fatal crashes during the same period last year, (including the uncaptured). There were 954 fatalities recorded from 742 crashes same period last year (excluding uncaptured).
South Africa has moved from the 7 days standard to comply with the international standard of recording fatalities within 30 days, as per the Moscow Declaration. Last year’s daily stats during the same period was based only on what had been captured. To ensure more accuracy this year, we use the SAPS CAS System even if we have not yet received the AR forms from the respective police stations.
Top three provinces by crashes are KwaZulu-Natal with 185 crashes, Gauteng with 169 crashes and Eastern Cape with 131 crashes. Nevertheless, this year’s figure remains too high and all efforts will be made to ensure that enforcement and communications remains top of mind. The major contributory factors remain speeds too high for circumstances, tyre failure, fatigue, dangerous overtaking and drinking and driving.
Road users are urged to comply with rules of the road and to make a concerted resolution to be better road users. We are advocating for self restraint and compliance. We encourage the public to register as the VOLUNTARY PUBLIC TRAFFIC OBSERVERS – RTMC
Media contact:
Ashref Ismail (Senior Manager: Enforcement Co-ordinator)
Cell: 071 680 3448
Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) ensures that the New Year's weekend is a safe one for road users
