Festive season: Traffic officials deployed to SA’s major routes
Traffic officials are deployed on all major national routes across South Africa to ensure the festive season does not get off to a rocky start.
Traffic volumes already increased in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape as schools and the work calendar year for 2022 officially closed for many.
The 2022 festive break will be the first without COVID-19 pandemic restrictions meaning provinces will anticipate an influx of visitors.
It will be another financial tightrope for South Africa, but those who can afford to leave their homes were warned that they would come across roadblocks.
“Gauteng traffic police will embark upon various law enforcement operations in the province, namely pedestrian operations, reckless and negligent driving, as well as incident management amongst others,” said Gauteng traffic police spokesperson Sello Marenane.
The N3 Toll Concession between Durban and Johannesburg said it expected to record over 1,500 vehicles per hour during 2022 holiday season.
Operations manager Thania Dhoogra said that toll plazas will be operating at maximum capacity as delays could be experienced at peak times.
“Traffic volumes on the N3 toll route are expected in a southbound direction towards KwaZulu-Natal for today [Thursday] continuing into the evening, as many travellers begin making their way to their holiday destination.”
In Limpopo, transport department spokesperson Tidimali Chauke said that toll gates along the busy N1 highway were congested.
“We have dispatched our law enforcement officers to all major roads and there will be no tolerance for traffic violations. We will maintain a constant presence on the roads and have no mercy against anyone who might be found breaking traffic rules.”
Wet weather conditions are also expected to continue unabated over the next couple of days and, as a result, motorists were advised to exercise extra caution.
In 2021, the Road Traffic Management Corporation reported over 10,000 crashes across the country, resulting in at least 5,000 deaths.
-EWN
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