East London - Fifty young recruits are to help Eastern Cape authorities intensify their Arrive Alive Campaign and increase the number of traffic officers in the province.
The 50 youths are currently undergoing training to become traffic officers at the Port Elizabeth Traffic College and will be followed by another group of 50 students in July 2009.
The Roads and Transport MEC Gloria Barry said the recruits formed part od the department's learnership programme.
"The last group of 60 students are expected to commence training in January 2010, new recruits' involvement in the task team will help them to gain experience," Ms Barry said.
The task team was launched by the department in an effort to intensify the provincial Arrive Alive Campaign during the festive season with a primary focus on drunk driving, reckless driving, moving violations, major route selective enforcement, passenger overloading and misuse of government vehicles, among others.
During the festive season, the campaign saw 15 293 drivers being caught for various traffic law offences, 711 people arrested for drinking and driving, 579 stray animals confiscated on the N2, N6 and R63 as well as summons to a value of R1.5 million issued for various traffic law offences.
The provincial road accidents were reduced by 30 percent during 2008/09 festive season.
This week Ms Barry said the reduced fatality rate was a huge step in the right direction for the department in reaching its 2014 target of cutting road traffic offences by 20 percent each year.
On Tuesday, the task team in cooperation with the Buffalo City Municipality officers suspended 141 out of 190 tested vehicles during a joint operation focusing on unroadworthy vehicles in East London and King Williams Town.
The suspended vehicles included 25 buses from various companies including national and locally renowned companies, 17 minibuses and 109 other motor vehicles.
A total of 32 government vehicles were also confiscated from various departments.
