Media Statement by Dan Plato, Minister of Community Safety

Following the success of several specialised road safety campaigns focusing on vehicle fitness and driver fatigue over the festive season, we will now be extending these until Easter 2012.

Western Cape Provincial Traffic in integrated operations conducted 483 roadblocks in which 161 989 vehicles were stopped and checked over the festive season. From 2 January, "vehicle fitness operations" were conducted nightly between 20:00 and 06:00 on the R61 between Aberdeen and Beaufort West and the N1 between Beaufort West and Laingsburg. A total of 110 vehicles were suspended during the vehicle fitness campaign, including buses, taxis, trucks, midi buses and taxis with trailers.

The success of these efforts is evident in the fact that since 22 December 2011, no public transport fatalities were recorded on these routes.

Another area which received special attention from Provincial Traffic Services was driver fatigue. A high percentage of crashes and fatalities involving public transport vehicles can be attributed to driver fatigue. In order to curb this, a total of 3 429 public transport vehicles were stopped and 520 drivers were requested to rest before resuming their journey.

Traffic Law Enforcement also engaged with neighbouring provinces (Eastern and Northern Cape) to ensure aligned focuses and effective communication in case of emergencies.

While there were still far too many fatalities on our roads over the festive season, we have seen a 7% decrease in the total number compared with December 2010. This is due in large part to visible traffic policing and specialised campaigns such as our Safely Home campaign, which has focused on driver fatigue, vehicle fitness and learner transport. It is, however, still a serious concern that the basics of road safety are not being adhered to by many - over the festive season more than 500 drivers were fined for using their cell phones while driving and 3 000 motorists were fined for not wearing seatbelts.

Mr Kenny Africa, Provincial Traffic Chief, and his team spent many hours over the festive season enforcing traffic laws in the Western Cape. Their work often requires them to work late at night, and be away from their families while the rest of us are enjoying our holidays. Their on-going commitment to ensuring everyone gets Safely Home is greatly appreciated.