Pretoria - Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele has once again called on road users to exercise extra caution on the country's roads, as traffic volumes are expected to increase from Friday ahead of the Easter holidays.
"We want to re-emphasize the need to exercise extra caution and obey all rules of the road without exception... we will focus on driver and vehicle fitness, wearing of seatbelts at all times, drinking and driving, fatigue and pedestrian safety.
"We have also issued an instruction that every driver stopped must be tested for alcohol. We urge motorists to drive with their headlamps on at all times," said Ndebele.
This follows more than three road crashes in Gauteng alone this morning.
Forty people were reported injured when a bus crashed into a ditch in Pretoria North. In another incident, a SANDF member was killed and three others injured when the car in which they were travelling overturned and rolled on the N4 highway near Bronkhorstspruit.
And in the third incident, a motorcyclist was airlifted to hospital in a critical condition after he was side-swiped by a truck in Welbekend, Pretoria.
Heavy traffic volumes are expected along major arterial routes this weekend, following the closure of inland schools on Friday.
On Wednesday, Ndebele visited the families of the two people who were killed when a Putco bus crashed into their house in Braamfischerville, Soweto.
The minister announced that the Road Accident Fund will cover the burial costs of the deceased couple, and bus company Putco will re-build the house that was damaged during the crash.
