The Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga has expressed concern about the reckless motorist’s behaviour on the country’s roads during this Easter weekend.
This as she hinted that they don’t expect a low number of road fatalities when the statistics are released soon, due to several factors.
Her comments come as most motorists make their way back home from the Easter holidays.
“What we have observed across the country, there is serious reckless driving, influenced by quite a number of issues including drunk driving and speeding, particularly by young people.
Many of these accidents happen at night, and its people who are drunk.
As you are aware, we had that fatal accident in Limpopo that claimed 45 lives, that makes us not to expect any decrease this weekend.
Some provinces, like Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and even Northern Cape, are not recording any decrease in terms of fatalities,” said Chikunga at the Mariannhill Toll Plaza in KwaZulu-Natal.
Meanwhile, Gauteng Traffic Police (GTP) has intensified visibility across the province to ensure a safe return for holidaymakers who are making their way from various provinces to Gauteng.
According to the GTP spokesperson, Sello Maremane, the heightened police visibility is aimed at ensuring road safety and to reduce road crashes, that can lead to fatalities along Gauteng major routes.
“The following routes are expected to experience high traffic volumes, the N3 Durban to Johannesburg, N1 Polokwane to Pretoria, N4 Emalahleni to Pretoria, N12 Potchefstroom to Johannesburg and N1 Bloemfontein to Johannesburg.
Heavy traffic volumes are expected on these routes starting from 11h00 this morning until late in the evening,” explained Maremane.
The province has already recorded more than 20 fatalities since last week Thursday.
In Limpopo, some of the gates at the Kranskop Toll Plaza were open for free, to ease congestion for southbound traffic on the N1.
“There is heavy traffic on roads leading out of the province, including the N1, R101, R71, R81, the R579 from Lebowakgomo to Apelcross, and D4100 Apelcross Groblersdal and Marblehall.
Gates at the Nyl and Kranskop Toll Plaza have been opened several times today to clear southbound congestion on the N1.
Impatient drivers are warned against driving on the yellow lane and/or facing oncoming traffic, especially at tollgates, as this might cause accidents that will congest traffic further,” said the Provincial Department of Transport spokesperson, Tidimalo Chuene.
In the North West, Traffic authorities continue to plead for motorists to exercise caution on the province’s roads.
This after a head on collision claimed the lives of two people on the R503 road linking Mahikeng and Litchenburg.
One of the vehicles caught fire, forcing a temporary closure of the road.
There were 225 recorded road fatalities over Easter long weekend in 2023.
