Call for roads policy change
THE Department of Transport and the Road Traffic Management Corporation want to strengthen measures and punishments to combat road accidents during the December and Easter holidays.
Minister of Transport Blade Nzimande has revealed that road accidents killed many people because there were some reckless, drunken and fatigued drivers who refused to obey the law.
He said an unacceptable increase in road accidents was already recorded between December 1 and 18 in all provinces, except Gauteng, compared to this period last year.
His department was now pushing for the government to change policies which would allow the Department of Justice to give harsher punishment and make things harder for offenders.
Nzimande said new technological innovations of the fourth industrial revolution should be used by traffic officers so that blood tests could be conducted on the spot, and the instant results accepted and used in court.
He said an urgent meeting would be held with the Department of Justice and the National Prosecuting Authority to ensure that serious cases involving violation of traffic law were prosecuted expeditiously.
His department also wants cross-border operations to be strengthened; t. This will deal with the high incidents of cross-border minibus taxis that are overloaded with both passengers and goods.
He said communication with neighbouring countries would be made to create a consensus about minimum requirements for travelling vehicles to be deemed roadworthy.
Road Traffic Management Corporation spokesperson Simon Zwane suggested that drunken motorists be kept in jail for at least a week before they could receive bail.
He reckoned this would discourage a lot of motorists from being reckless and irresponsible on the roads. THE South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) yesterday lambasted an “old hoax” doing the rounds on social media about the safety of Durban’s well-known “spaghetti junction” interchange, containing a photograph purporting to show cracks in the structure.
Sanral issued a statement saying it continuously evaluated the national road network against a set of norms and standards and applied this analysis during project design, construction and routine road maintenance.
“Thus, it is with concern that Sanral has noted the posting on social media of a photograph of a bridge with a gap and which is purported to be the spaghetti junction (EB Cloete Interchange) on the N2 outside Durban,” Sanral Eastern Region regional manager Dumisani Nkabinde said.
“The photo shows a type of expansion joint located in the span of the bridge. It is not a crack. The picture is not from EB Cloete, but from an interchange in the US that’s also called ‘spaghetti junction’.” |