The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has called on motorists to ensure their vehicles are roadworthy as well as licenced before travelling to their holiday destinations this festive season.
“Motorists who intend travelling this festive season must have already ensured that their vehicles are fit to be on the roads. The road safety agency also calls on drivers to ensure they are in a good state of health and wellbeing before undertaking long trips,” the RTMC said on Friday.
The RTMC warned motorists that traffic officers will be paying attention to roadworthiness and overloading during this period.
“Law enforcement operations are starting to yield the desired results on clamping down on unroadworthy vehicles. The National Traffic Police deployed on the N2 Pongola and N3 Pietermaritzburg have inspected about 1901 vehicles travelling on this stretch of the road in KwaZulu-Natal between November 11 and December 5.
“A total 1399 traffic fines were issued while 17 truck drivers were arrested for various offences including drunk driving, reckless and negligent driving and fraud,” the RTMC said.
Defective breaks, burst tyres and defective lights have been identified as contributing to fatal crashes on the roads.
“With heavy rainfall predicted for this period, it is important to ensure that wipers are in a perfect state as they affect visibility on rainy days.
“Law enforcement officers will not hesitate to discontinue and even impound vehicles with the above defects including cracked windscreens. Multi-disciplinary law enforcement operations are planned on these routes to ensure safety and improve compliance with the rules of the road,” the RTMC said.
The impoundment of a vehicle is a great inconvenience to travelling motorists, as they will have to fix the vehicle at extra costs and have the vehicle taken for roadworthy tests before it is allowed on the road again. This will be in addition to traffic fines and impoundment fees.
“The last thing anybody wants to experience is to have their trip interrupted by foreseeable and preventable factors,” the RTMC said.
Members of the public are also encouraged to renew their vehicle disc at https://online.natis.gov.za.
