Officials have stopped and checked 1 141 447 vehicles and drivers in 988 road-blocks throughout the country since December 1 as part of the Arrive Alive road safety campaign, the Transport Department said on Monday.
It said 3 939 people were arrested for drunk driving, 298 for reckless and negligent driving and 155 for overloading.
In addition, 186 public transport drivers were arrested, 214 arrests were made pertaining to driving licences and false documentation and 3 305 unroadworthy vehicles - including 1 737 buses and taxis - were removed from the roads.
Speeding fines were imposed on 297 000 motorists, with thousands more fined for not wearing seatbelts and other offences, department spokesperson Logan Maistry said in a statement.
On Sunday, the driver of an overloaded minibus taxi was caught travelling 156km/h in a 120km/h zone on the N2 near Sezela in KwaZulu-Natal, while a motorist was arrested for doing 202km/h in a 120km/h zone on the N2 near Fairbreeze in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday, he said.
Maistry said preliminary reports indicated that 315 people had died in 253 crashes on the country’s roads between January 1 and January 17. They included 90 drivers, 135 passengers and 90 pedestrians.
In December, 1 050 people died on South Africa’s roads. Of these, 276 were drivers, 419 passengers and 355 pedestrians.
Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele has called on vehicle manufacturers, public and private donors, non-governmental organisations, the religious sector, victims of road crashes, families of those killed and injured in road crashes and experts to partner with government to do much more towards safer roads.
“Together, we must all do much more to reduce the economic and emotional devastation caused by road crashes and road deaths,” he said, adding that road traffic deaths and injuries were preventable.
“The millions of people who use our roads every day deserve safer roads,” Ndebele said. - Sapa
2 Comments Received
January 20th, 2010 @3:08 pm
It’s all well that they want to make the roads more safe, I personally were stopped in a roadblock which I don’t have a probelm with at all, but then please can they make a concerted effort to fix potholes in our roads as soon as they appear. Just had 2 tyres slashed last night hitting a pothole after coming back form my birthday dinner. Had my 2 baby granddaughters in the car with me and fortunately my son and daughter was there to help out with changing the tyres.
I know of several people who has lost their lifes because of the poor condition of our roads, especially in the ekuhukleni metro. Something has to be done!!!
January 22nd, 2010 @10:19 am
Agree fully that we need better maintenance of roads, road markings, road signs etc.
BUT…..most of all we need better policing of moving violations. Cops need to get out from behind their cameras and onto the roads. (I have nothing against cameras being used, but they could be used far more widely for monitoring all offences and why do they need two to three officers to man one camera?)
Proper driver training and discipline are also serious issues. People are taught the basics of operating a vehicle and there are millions of vehicle operators on the roads, but very few drivers.
Most accidents are caused by drivers failure to adjust driving patterns/habits to the conditions. Every day we hear on the news that “The rain/roadworks etc. ’caused’ an accident”
NONSENSE !!! It was the driver that caused the accident by failing to adjust his/her driving pattern to suit the conditions.
People fail to slow down, tailgate, don’t switch lights on near roadworks or in bad weather, cun in frint of other vehicles etc.etc.etc. One can go on endlessly with list of violations infinitely that all come down to sticking to the basics.
Unfortunately a lot of people learn their driving “skills” from other drivers who are equally bad at obeying the rules, so get the driver training programmes being run by competent people and root out the corruption of buying licences and get back to basics with policing.
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