Pretoria - Eastern Cape MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison, Ghishma Barry, has warned that every car entering and leaving the province will be monitored by traffic officials in an effort to curb road accidents and deaths.
The department recently received a much needed boost with 48 new vehicles from Fleet Africa Eastern Cape.
Barry warned that officials will pay attention to all major routes and check all vehicles, especially public transport vehicles and those found to be unroadworthy would be removed from the road.
"Very soon, people are going to start losing points and ultimately their drivers' licences, when the Eastern Cape starts the implementation of the Administration Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) demerit system," said Barry.
He said officials would also encourage drivers to stop regularly during trips and urged long distance public transport vehicle owners to ensure that they have at least two drivers per trip in an effort to avoid fatigue related accidents.
He said the province was more than ready to receive the world during 2010 FIFA World Cup, adding that the new vehicles would help in enhancing service delivery and improving capacity in preparation for the tournament.
"Our traffic law enforcement agencies will provide a safe passage for all road users, various capacity building programmes have been taking place since the last financial year, including refresher courses for our provincial traffic officers," he said.
Traffic law enforcement agencies in various districts are currently under-going training focusing on Incident Management Systems (IMS) in an effort to improve their capacity of dealing with accident and incident scenes.
During the tournament, road users will be encouraged to notify the department's customer care centre through their toll free number 0800 644 644 about any accident or incident.
