South Africa
Over 800 drivers nabbed for drunken driving - Nzimande─── KATLEHO MORAPELA 15:35 Thu, 02 May 2019
The highest cause of road fatalities in South Africa remains human factors.
According to the Minister of Transport, Blade Nzimande, human factors contributed to 91% of road carnages that were recorded during the 2019 Easter Weekend.
Releasing a preliminary report on this year’s Easter Road Safety Campaign, Nzimande revealed that 807 drivers were nabbed for drunk driving over the Easter weekend while approximately 200 were arrested for speeding.
Nzimande said a total number of 192 drivers were arrested countrywide for speeding during the Easter period with the highest speed recorded in Gauteng at 203 km/h followed by the Western Cape and the Free State.
OFM News, during the Easter Weekend, reported on a number of motorists caught speeding. The Free State Department of Police, Roads, and Transport sent a stern warning to motorists after Provincial Inspectors arrested a Medical Doctor driving a BMW at over 200km/h in a 120km/h zone at the N3 Toll Route, soon after four motorists were arrested for speeding and released on bail.
Nzimande has further highlighted that the highest alcohol reading was reported in Gauteng, followed by the Western Cape, Limpopo and then Mpumalanga with a total of 807 drivers arrested across the country.
He said male drivers continue to be more serious violators on the roads and that they were involved in 72% of crashes during the Easter weekend, while females were only involved in about 15% of accidents.
Nzimande has sent a warning that motorists throughout the country need to take more precautions when travelling and ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy.
He listed tyre burst as one of the major contributors to road crashes and said they increased astronomically by 100% in 2019 as compared to 82% in 2018. He also alluded that the vehicle types that contributed the highest to crashes were motorcars and Light Delivery Vehicles (LDV’s) while minibus taxis contributed 6% of the crashes.
He told the media that the department has concluded there will be traffic officers visible on the country’s roads 24 hours a day as this has shown to reduce crashes.
OFM News
