During the past six days the province of the Eastern Cape has experienced some very bad accidents and untimely deaths with the majority occurring in the Chris Hani and O R Tambo districts.
We have observed that the majority of accidents with multiple deaths were involving public transport vehicles and reckless driving i.e. overtaking when unsafe to do so, fatigue as well as excessive speeding. Then the factor of pedestrians being knocked down is also very high and needs urgent intervention.
Taking all the above into account, the Department of Transport has decided to implement the following steps immediately from 22 December 2009:
* Patrols: visible patrols will be stepped up, especially in the Chris Hani and O R Tambo districts and patrol vehicles to drive with blue lights switched on whilst patrolling the major routes as a deterrent and especially at night times.
Vehicles have been taken from roads and admin sections to be used for road blocks and the marked patrol vehicles will be used for visible policing along the major routes to ensure that blue lights and vehicle markings can be used as a deterrent
* Public vehicles: There will be more emphasis on stopping public vehicles. Already, 510 public transport vehicles have been tested and more than 200 of these vehicles were found to be un-roadworthy and removed from the road. We will pay a particular attention to fatigue by interacting and disrupting the drivers through forcing them out of the road (breaking their trip) to stretch their legs. We call upon owners of long distance public transport vehicles to ensure that they have at least two drivers per trip in order to avoid fatigue related accidents
* Special operations task team: It will operate in the respective districts and assist station officers and all officers to concentrate on visible policing and covering the major routes i.e. R61, N2, R72, N6 and N10. We will ensure that we cover a larger portion of these routes rather than have big road blocks and ensure we spread the patrol teams out and have smaller road blocks but more visible patrol officers on the routes. Since the start of our Festive Season Arrive Alive Campaign in 1 December 2009, this team has arrested 590 drunken drivers on Eastern Cape Roads. This clearly demonstrates our zero tolerance approach on drunken drivers in the Eastern Cape and we will ensure that they feel the sting of our provincial task team if they do not adhere to the law and our road safety message, which says “don’t drink and drive”
* Road areas i.e. taxi ranks, garages and places where vehicles stop to refuel and promote road safety and dangers of fatigue, excessive speeding, positive use of rear safety belts and misuse danger of cell phones whilst driving
* Maximum overtime limit: the maximum limit of overtime worked as regulated by Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) not to exceed the 30 percent of salary, has been lifted from 21 December 2009 by special consent until the 10 January 2010 due to the vast amount of serious accidents and deaths over the past few days and this will ensure more patrols take place and especially late nights and early mornings i.e. 22h00 to 06h00
* Stray animal task team: it will concentrate on the major identified routes and impound the animals immediately. The recent actions have borne fruits as animal related accidents is lower that other years but we still need to be proactive. Already, 117 animals have been impounded by the team working together with our road rangers on the N2 between Mthatha and Tsolo.
Our Arrive Alive Operational plan features nine special focal areas, which include:
* driver fitness: documentation, fatigue, alcohol abuse
* moving violations: barrier lines, red light infringements, cell phones misuse, excessive speeding
* overloading: passenger and public/freight transport vehicles
* vehicle fitness: documentation, roadworthiness and registration plate enforcement
* pedestrian safety: pedestrian jay-walking, drink and walk
* seatbelts: use by front and rear seat passengers
* vehicle visibility: defective front and rear lamps
* following distances: between heavy vehicles, inconsiderate driving
* crime prevention: public safety/pro active policing.
We want to make a difference in this festive season given the envisaged high traffic volume on our roads through sensitising and entrenching the message of arriving alive and obeying the rules of the road.
Enquiries:
Ncedo Kumbaca
Cell: 082 562 6023
Issued by: Department of Transport, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
21 December 2009
Source: Department of Transport, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ectransport.gov.za/)
