Roadblocks around Joburg

2008-12-24 19:11

Johannesburg - Roadblocks have been set up across Johannesburg to encourage safe and responsible driving before Christmas Day, Johannesburg metro police said on Wednesday.

Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the intensified, ongoing roadblocks were aimed at ensuring vehicles that were not roadworthy were taken off the roads for all road users' safety.

The roadblocks were also clamping down on drunk driving and overloading and focusing on finding stolen vehicles.

Minnaar said this was an effort to communicate with motorists and to encourage them to drive safely.

The Road Traffic Management Corporation reported on Monday that at least 623 people had died on South Africa's roads by mid-December. This was a rate of nearly 30 deaths a day.

Of the deaths, 247 were passengers, 190 pedestrians and 186 drivers, and they had died as a result of either speed, fatigue or unsafe overtaking.

This year's toll is nearly half that of last year, when 1144 people had lost their lives by this time.

- SAPA