The deaths of at least 17 motorists - including a mother and her baby - on KZN roads has cast a pall over the Easter festivities.
|||Durban - The deaths of at least 17 motorists – including a mother and her five-month-old baby – on KwaZulu-Natal roads has cast a pall over the Easter long weekend festivities.
The mother and child died after they were flung from their car which had collided with another vehicle in Merebank on Sunday.
Netcare 911 spokesman, Chris Botha, said the woman’s husband sustained serious injuries. He said it appeared that the driver of the other vehicle had left the scene before the paramedics arrived.
Province-wide, there were 17 road deaths from Good Friday to Easter Sunday, the KZN Department of Transport said on Sunday. It said this was almost half the number last year, when 32 people had died on KZN roads over Easter. In 2011, the provincial death toll over the same period was 45.
Today, most holidaymakers will be heading back home, and heavy traffic volumes are expected.
According to the N3 Toll Concession’s Twitter account, @N3Route, 1 180 vehicles an hour were heading north at Mooi River Toll Plaza between noon and 1pm on Sunday, and 560 heading south.
Seven buses and eight minibus taxis were impounded during a Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) road safety operation in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday for being unroadworthy, KZN Transport spokesman Kwanele Ncalane said.
The bus passengers, including church groups, were provided with alternative transportation, he said.
“The number of buses and minibus taxis that have been impounded shows that some companies are not taking road safety seriously, Ncalane said
, vowing that road safety and law enforcement efforts would continue on Monday.
Ncalane said more than 40 motorists were arrested by RTI officers over the long weekend for driving under the influence of alcohol, while the metro police said their officers arrested 147 drivers for the same offence.
The metro police held roadblocks on the M4 southern freeway, the M25 in KwaMashu, Malandela Road in Newlands East, Shepstone Road in the CBD and along the beachfront.
Spokesman Eugene Msomi said police issued a further 5 000 spot fines for various offences.
Nationally, Transport Minister Ben Martins said officials would continue to focus on the major routes – the N1, N2, N3 and N4 – as motorists flock home on Monday.
“We call on all South Africans to join us in our efforts to reduce road deaths. We want to re-emphasise the need to exercise caution and obey the rules of the road at all times,” he said.
“We can reduce road fatalities by keeping to the set legal speed limit, driving when we are fit to do so, by ensuring that our vehicles are roadworthy, by wearing seatbelts at all times, and not drinking and driving and not drinking and walking,” said Martins.
He said pedestrians were just as vulnerable as motorists and that at least 46 percent of the people who die in road-related accidents are pedestrians.
Martins warned that drunk drivers would be arrested immediately, “without negotiations, and risk having their driving licences cancelled”.
As part of the road safety education campaign the minister would be at Kei Bridge on the N2 Highway between East London and Butterworth in the Eastern Cape today at 10am and the deputy minister Sindisiwe Chikunga would be visiting Kranskop Toll Plaza in Limpopo Province.
They also intend assisting with pre-trip inspections that will be conducted to ensure the roadworthiness of vehicles and the fitness of drivers.
The transport department is campaigning to further reduce the number of road fatalities from the almost 300 recorded in 2011.
Last year saw a significant reduction in the Easter road death toll.
noelene.barbeau@inl.co.za
Daily News