E-Cape budgets R2.5m for Easter campaign

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Pretoria – The Eastern Cape Department of Transport has budgeted R2.5 million for this Easter Arrive Alive Campaign in order to ensure that there is maximum visibility of officers throughout the province.

The department launched the campaign this week in Aberdeen along the notorious N9/R61, which is one of the most hazardous routes in South Africa.

The event featured the opening of a new Traffic Station for Provincial Traffic Officers in order to ensure that traffic officers are permanently deployed in the area.

The Provincial Government Fleet Management Services Trading Entity handed over 20 vehicles to provincial traffic officers in order to improve their visibility. Fifteen emergency response vehicles, 20 rescue vehicles, 15 ambulances and 5 forensic and pathology vehicles, in order to improve the Department of Health’s response time to road accidents, were also handed over.

The department further handed over new uniforms to Provincial Traffic Officers in order to boost their morale and to inspire officers to diligently affirm their commitment to the values of the public service as enshrined in department’s value standards.

“A clarion call is made to bus companies and the taxi operators to go beyond the possible and ensure the safety of all South Africans travelling in their buses and taxis.

“We have a collective responsibility to adhere to the principles and objectives of the United Nations 2011-2020 Decade of Action for Road Safety and the Department of Transport’s 365 Days of Road Safety programme, which aim to mitigate the negative conduct and tendencies that aggravate road carnage,” the department said.

According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation statistics for the 2010/11 period, the N9 between Aberdeen and Graaf Reinet accounted for 9 crashes with 13 fatalities and between Willowmore and Aberdeen it accounted for 2 crashes with 2 fatalities.

The R61 between Aberdeen Graaf Reinet had 5 crashes and 6 fatalities and between Beaufort West and Aberdeen the province had 10 crashes with 18 fatalities.

According to Provincial Customer Care Centre statistics for the 2013 Easter period, there was a total of 84 crashes with 13 fatalities, 55 serious injuries and 70 slight injuries across the province. – SAnews.gov.za