Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison MEC, Pat Ngomane is deeply saddened by three major crashes that claimed eleven road users in different routes in the province.
He once more reiterated his call to the general public to use the road with great caution in order to save lives. He says with increased vigilance on the part of motorists, some of the crashes are avoidable because most of them are due to human error and failure to obey traffic rules. MEC Ngomane has meanwhile sent condolences to the affected families.
On Saturday [11 November 2017] morning at about 01h50 on the R536 Road between Hazyview and Kruger Gate near Hoxanne, a sedan lost control and hit a tree. All three men who were in the vehicle died on the scene. It emerged that the driver of the vehicle was a traffic officer attached to the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality.
Yesterday [12 November 2017] at about 15h00, a side swipe collision involving two sedans, resulted into seven fatalities on the N4 Toll Road at Paardeplaats near Belfast. The Mercedes Benz was driving from Belfast direction towards Middelburg while the Kia sedan was going the opposite direction.
There were five people in the Mercedes Benz sedan including the driver and two occupants in the Kia sedan. All occupants in both vehicles were killed on impact. On the same stretch of road, four vehicles and a minibus taxi collided resulting into one person dying. Three seriously injured occupants were transported to hospital and ten were slightly injured.
MEC Ngomane says that this is an indication that plans for the Festive Season need to be intensified to curb road crashes.
“We need to start now and put in place intensive strategies as the Festive Season is approaching and this period is usually characterized by high volume of traffic and increased road crashes. We will also not tolerate any waywardness on the part of motorists as traffic officers will be deployed on all major routes,” he said.
Meanwhile, a 26 year old Brian Cyneath Beets who was caught driving at 189 km/h on a 120 km/h zone in October has been sentenced with a fine of R8000 or 8 months imprisonment at the Nelspruit Magistrate Court on 9 November 2017.
MEC Ngomane has praised the Department of Justice saying this will serve as a deterrent to other motorists who disobey the law.
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Enquiries: Joseph Mabuza
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E-mail: emabuza@mpg.gov.za