Crashes kill 23 – yet better behaviour overall
AT LEAST 22 people died on the Western Cape’s roads this Easter, during a long weekend marked by a “change in behaviour from motorists”, said provincial Traffic Chief Kenny Africa.
In the Cape Town metro areas, nine crashes in Elsies River, Matroosfontein, Hindle Road, Athlone, Khayelitsha, Manenberg and Durbanville claimed the lives of three motorcyclists, three pedestrians and five passengers. Some of these had occurred in the early hours of the morning, said Africa.
There had been four crashes on Western Cape national roads, in which two drivers, eight passengers and one pedestrian died.
“Of the four crashes on the national roads, only two were head-on collisions. In the one at Klawer on the N7, eight people died when their Corsa collided with a bus
on Sunday,” said Africa.
Yesterday, a man died in a four-car pileup on the N2, heading towards Somerset West, between Baden Powell Drive and Macassar. The man’s wife and children sustained minor injuries.
“There has been a vast change in behaviour of motorists on national and main road. On Thursday with the bus strike there were so many taxis on our roads travelling towards the Eastern Cape, we had a problem but, touch wood, there were no taxi-related fatalities.
“So there was definitely a change,” said Africa.
He ascribed the behavioural changes to pre-Easter road safety campaigns and a greater visibility of traffic officers, who will remain vigilant on the roads right up until 6am today when the Easter weekend is over.
“We did everything in our power to ensure that these taxis taking long-distance routes were roadworthy. Unroadworthy vehicles were impounded.
“We also had our fatigue management programme in place, where we stopped long-distance taxis and buses at Beaufort West, Laingsburg and Aberdeen.
“We parked 12 and let drivers sleep for about five hours before letting them go.
“We also arrested a record number of 35 drunken drivers on Friday and Saturday nights,” said Africa.
Yesterday, with 6 800 vehicles an hour passing into Cape Town through Du Toit’s Kloof and Sir Lowry’s Pass, Africa said they were “on thin ice” as they remained on duty through the night, to let “motorists be cognisant of the fact that our no-nonsense approach is a serious one”.
In KZN on Saturday, 14 people died in a gruesome bus crash at Ntunjambili Road, KwaSambana. Six people were injured and taken to the local hospital.
In a two-taxi collision on the N3 Highway at Mooi River yesterday, three people died and 35 were injured, while in Pinetown a man died when his car collided with a crane.