Pretoria - There will be no excuse for bad behavior and drunk driving on the country's roads this festive season.
Ashref Ismail, of the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), said law enforcement officers were not going to be sympathetic to reckless, negligent drivers and those who will be driving under the influence of alcohol.
"We've seen that 20 percent of road users [don't respond to] road safety campaigns, they don't listen... Reckless, negligent drivers, drunken driving, overtaking on the barrier lane and ... crossing red lights - all these traffic (law) infringements are not negotiable," he said.
Ismail told BuaNews that the latest records of fatal crashes since the start of festive season would be released on Wednesday. The count last week Wednesday stood at 170 people dead, from 1 - 14 December.
He said traffic officers were going to be more visible at places identified as high accident zones.
"We've already deployed our law enforcers and resources to those hazardous roads, where 95 percent of fatalities occur."
Ismail said with the new National Rolling Enforcement Plan, which was unveiled in September, they stopped 1.3 million vehicles in October and a further 1.4 million in November.
He said so far, a total of 525 000 tickets have been issued to motorists for exceeding the legal speed limit, as well as driving without a driver's licence and driving unroadworthy vehicles.
A total of 72 people were arrested at the recent road blocks in Sebokeng, Soweto and Sandton for driving under the influence.
"Speeding and drunk driving are major problems on our roads. We also have challenges of drinking and walking, illegal crossing along the highway and pedestrians not wearing (visibly coloured) clothes.
"We've also discovered that motorists and their passengers are not wearing their seatbelts and we are also not going to be (sympathetic) to this traffic offence," he said.
Ismail said road safety was not the responsibility of the RTMC or government, but that of all road users.
