Transport Minister Barbara Creecy and Deputy Minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa monitored traffic in Limpopo on Monday after holding a media briefing on the Easter road campaign.
Image: Road Traffic Management Corporation
Traffic officials arrested a driver who was ten times over the legal limit in Tsolo, in the Eastern Cape over the Easter long weekend.
“The highest number of drunk drivers is still, unfortunately, as I reported last weekend in the Eastern Cape, where we’ve now arrested another 111 people,” Transport Minister Barbara Creecy said during a briefing on the Easter road campaign on the N1 in Kranskop, Limpopo, on Monday.
Creecy, however, said fatalities and crashes showed significant decreases in all provinces, except Mpumalanga where there was a serious accident on Thursday evening.
Eastern Cape and Western Cape statistics have remained largely unchanged compared to last year.
“What is heartening is that in all six other provinces, there is a significant decrease in crashes and in fatalities,” Creecy said.
“Right now, Limpopo is leading the pack with the highest increase in safety and the lowest level of crashes and fatalities.”
Creecy said over the last few days, officials stopped 70 000 vehicles and issued 21 000 traffic fines, with 512 arrests for various offences, including drunk driving, excessive speeding and violating operating permits.
“Last weekend, I spoke about somebody we arrested in Port St. Johns who was nine times over the legal limit.
“I don’t know whether it’s a competition, but we’ve now arrested somebody in Tsolo who is ten times over the legal limit,” Creecy said.
Creecy said that since the start of the enforcement of their operations on March 20, they have stopped 782 000 vehicles. 116 000 fines were issued.
“A total of 3500 drivers were arrested for various offences and 89 pedestrians have been arrested for walking on highways,” Creecy said.
“We will not allow people to walk on highways. It endangers their own lives and of course when you are driving at high speed, if you collide with a pedestrian, it’s going to endanger the lives of everybody in that vehicle.”
A total of 2200 unroadworthy vehicles were prevented from continuing their journey, and another 2500 vehicles were impounded for violation of permits and provisions of the National Land Transport Act.
Cape Times