Mobility
What plans does his Department have to prevent road crashes and carnage during the festive season and especially the December holiday period especially on the N1 near De Doorns?
The safe movement of all our road users is of paramount importance throughout the year. It is customary to see a huge influx of motorists into the province and equally so leaving the province at the start of the December holidays. The re-deployment of our officers to critical routes will take place during the festive season which promotes the effective utilisation of resources when and where they are needed most.
Our operations, which include but are not limited to specific interventions, will be focussing on the reduction of fixed-point operations on specific days when high volume traffic movements are expected. Our focus approach will be to deploy the maximum number of our staff from our Parow, Worcester, Laingsburg and Beaufort West Traffic Centres on these routes to promote a presence of high visibility specifically in areas on the N1 where our data sets reflect a high crash rate. Contributory factors include driver negligence, speeding, distracted driving and dangerous over-taking, notably by public transport operators.
The Safely Home road safety behaviour change campaign functions 365 days a year. In December and January, it will focus on alcohol misuse by both drivers and pedestrians over the period, using a combination of traditional media and targeted social and online media. This Festive Season will also see nightly editions of the Western Cape Highway Patrol reality program on eTV, strategically timed at 22h00 Monday to Thursday. This program aims to change driver behaviour by portraying the reality of the lives of traffic officers on our roads.
