'BE SAFE ON THE ROADS'

WITH mense hitting the road to celebrate Easter weekend in far-off places, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has asked motorists to take extra care on South Africa’s paaie.

“Wear your seat belts, reduce speed, buckle up babies and children, don’t text while driving instead use your hands-free kit and your voice to give instructions to your phone.” 

These are some of the pieces of advice given by Creecy, who warned of high traffic volumes as people travel to various destinations and the religious community traveling to places of pilgrimage.

Creecy said that the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo provinces account for more than 76% of road accidents and deaths and that most of the serious accidents and fatalities occur on Friday nights and Saturday nights, particularly between the times of 6pm and 8pm.

She adds: “80% of accidents in our country are caused by human error, such as speeding, texting while driving, fatigue, driving under the influence of alcohol, walking on highways and across highways both as sober and not so-sober pedestrians - all of these are major factors in road accidents.

“We continue to have high volumes of pedestrian involvement in accidents; almost 40% of those killed in motor vehicle accidents in our country are pedestrians. 

“We urge motorists to plan routes carefully, especially considering that unfortunately we are expecting heavy rainfall throughout the Easter weekend, and we know that heavy rainfall is an important factor in promoting more road accidents.”