The Automobile Association of SA supports the new national road safety campaign, Operation Juggernaut, but has appealed for more “visible policing” to put a stop to the carnage on the roads.
The Automobile Association of SA supports the new national road safety campaign, Operation Juggernaut, but has appealed for more “visible policing” to put a stop to the carnage on the roads.
AA spokesman Gary Roland said he supported the road safety campaign, Operation Juggernaut, as it would reduce the number of unroadworthy vehicles and increase police visibility on roads.
Operation Juggernaut was launched recently in response to the recent series of fatal accidents involving heavy vehicles. The operation is meant to specifically target heavy vehicles, buses and minibus taxis in an attempt to eliminate unroadworthy and unlicensed drivers from the roads.
Running in conjunction with the Arrive Alive campaign, Juggernaut will continue throughout the holiday season and involve thousands of traffic and police officers countrywide.
Roland said the AA believed the lack of traffic officers on the country’s roads was probably the single most important factor behind the authorities’ failure to reduce fatal accidents.
He believed that a return to visible policing on the roads could bring a long-term reduction in the number of traffic accidents.
When addressing the parliamentary portfolio committee on transport earlier this year, he suggested that another 7 000 traffic officers be appointed.
quoted Roland as saying that KwaZulu-Natal was ahead of the country when it came to visible policing.
“The KwaZulu-Natal traffic police are doing an awesome job, in spite of their limited staff and equipment … but even their visible policing is inadequate.”
He said the lack of visible policing in all provinces was having a bad effect on the motoring public as motorists needed to see justice in action. He said that hidden cameras did not have the same effect as the person trapped would only get a notice the mail a few months later and that had very little punitive effect on drivers.
Roland appealed to the government, traffic authorities and motorists to co-operate in order to curb the slaughter on the roads as the situation had now reached a crisis point.
