According to reports, at least 14,000 people pass away on SA roads every year. AS we approach the festive season, stakeholders used the national prayer day to call for adherence to road rules to minimize deaths.
Officials from the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD), Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) and interfaith leaders led prayers across the country. In Gauteng was held at Klipvalley Road, better known as “Killer Road”, in Orlando, Soweto, just behind Orlando Stadium. The road is among the accident hotspots of SA.
RTIA interfaith Administrator, Lefa Molise said they had begun educating road users about safety as the festive period approached. “We are interested in educating our communities. That’s why we have started now. We are continuing to empower our people with education that when you are on the roads, we must be able to share the road and change the behaviour in terms of destructive driving. We are calling on our people to be very careful,” said Molise.
He noted that more lives are lost on the roads during the festive season, and this year they wanted to see that change. The Road Traffic Management Corporation would help them identify accident hotspots throughout the country so that they could take their road safety education there.
Other awareness events were held in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga.JMPD Spokesperson, Xolani Fihla said they wanted to reduce road fatalities over the festive season.
“As we are heading into the festive season, we find that there is a lot of carnage on the roads, so we want to stop that because it is a real concern. We don’t want to keep losing our brothers, mothers, sisters and fathers due to accidents that can be avoided. We are here on the roads and we will continue enforcing the law,” said Fihla.
