A new Arrive Alive campaign is to focus on dangerous sections of roads where almost 6 000 people died in accidents in South Africa last year.
The project will start before the start of the Easter weekend, Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe said on Thursday.
Eighty new patrol cars will monitor the hazardous locations seven days a week for at least 16 hours a day.
Launching the project at Kyalami, Radebe said traffic authorities have listed 86 dangerous stretches of road totalling 10 730km, where 5 849 people died last year.
The new vehicles will be fitted with the latest safety and law-enforcement equipment, including a device to verify vehicle and drivers’ licences with the national database.
Radebe said the new vehicles will increase the visibility of traffic officers on the road.
”Visibility is important … as the behaviour of drivers is always impacted for 17 minutes after seeing a traffic officer.”
The vehicles will be fitted with breath alcohol-screening devices and video cameras at the front and rear to record traffic violations and speed offences.
Wendy Watson, chief director of Land Transport Regulation, said the new cars will adopt a zero-tolerance approach to traffic violations.
The R6,29-million project will also help save some of the R38-billion that road accidents cost the country every year, she added.
Radebe said the new cars will be on the road in time for the Easter weekend, when the traffic department plans to crack down on speeding, alcohol abuse, overloading, vehicle defects and driver fatigue.
Plan to battle road carnage
Radebe said the introduction of the new fleet of cars is one of the measures being introduced to decrease the carnage on the roads.
Last year, 36 people died and 21 were permanently disabled each day on South Africa’s roads.
There was an increase in fatal crashes by 1,85%, from 10 249 deaths in 2003 to 10 429 in 2004.
About 90% of road accidents can be blamed on human error, which can be traced back to the violation of traffic laws, Radebe said in his prepared speech handed to reporters at the launch.
Drinking alcohol when driving is one of the most frequent offences contributing to accidents.
”[According to] figures released by the Medical Research Council, 58% of all drivers and 61% of pedestrians killed in road crashes tested positive for alcohol,” Radebe said.
Last year, 2 333 people died as a direct result of drinking and driving, costing the country R1,62-billion, he said.
Speed-related accidents killed even more people, with 4 183 people dead, costing the economy R2,9-billion in 2004.
Watson said another 60 vehicles will be added to the fleet by the end of the year.
”This is the beginning of a much larger project that we are going to put in place,” she said.
Provincial, metropolitan and local traffic authorities will each be given some of the new cars. — Sapa