24/7 traffic cops on the cards as 23 killed on Western Cape roads

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula File photo: Thobile Mathonsi / African News Agency (ANA)

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula File photo: Thobile Mathonsi / African News Agency (ANA)

Published Sep 25, 2019

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Cape Town – Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has said efforts to ensure that traffic policing was a 24-hour-a-day, 7-days-a-week activity were under way.

“We are engaging with all traffic authorities in the country and traffic officers through relevant channels to ensure that the implementation of this intervention does not negatively affect conditions of service of our officers. We must all appreciate that safety on our roads is a collective responsibility,” he said.

This after 23 people were killed on Western Cape roads over the weekend. Other fatalities were reported in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.

Western Cape traffic chief Kenny Africa said the fatalities were between Friday and Sunday. Of the 23, 14 were passengers, four were drivers, and five were pedestrians.

The figure included the death of 10 construction workers who were killed on Saturday when the bakkie they were travelling in overturned on Ou Kaapseweg.

Last Friday, a woman lost her life in a crash on the R27 along the West Coast.

Mbalula urged motorists to

abide by the laws of the road as several arrests had been made nationally for offences including driving while under the influence of alcohol.

“The Department of Transport has taken tangible steps towards curbing the carnage.

The roll-out of the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) is not just about a more efficient way of adjudicating road traffic offences, but also about creating effective incentives to change road user behaviour,” said Mbalula.

Provincial traffic officials who were busy since Friday arrested

17 drunk drivers, with one driver

five times over the legal limit.

This while the City’s traffic officials arrested 47 intoxicated motorists and issued 1486 fines for various other offences.

Safety and Security mayco member JP Smith said: “We will increase our efforts to ensure

that motorists abide by the laws

of the road to make it safer,

and to bring those who transgress

to book.”

Cape Times

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