The Limpopo Department of Transport has urged motorists not to drive when they are tired but rather stop and rest or switch drivers to ensure that they arrive at their destination safely.
The department has expressed condolences over the latest crash on the province’s roads that killed three people and injured more than 13 others.
The minibus-taxi, en route from Gauteng, crashed on the Polokwane-Dendron road. The incident brings the death toll to 95 since the beginning of December in the province.
Transport MEC Makoma Makhurupetja says reckless driving is suspected to be the cause.
“Unfortunately, we are very disappointed. This morning (Saturday) at 7 o clock we received the sad news that one of the taxis that was coming from Gauteng has overturned on Dendron road where unfortunately we lost three lives which takes us to 95 and we really want to say to our motorists especially the taxi drivers please be careful. Because once a taxi overturns or gets involved in an accident so many people and so many lives get affected so we plead with them, to say we know that they have travelled a long journey, some of them are tired, they must rest, because you can see that this accident is because the driver was tired.”
Obey the traffic rules
The traffic continued to flow smoothly on the N1 road between Polokwane and Pretoria. The N1 is leading to the Beitbridge border between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The route carried heavy traffic volumes and congestion has been experienced at all the toll gates.
At some stage vehicles formed a distance of over 10 kilometres. On the same N1 road between Polokwane and Louis Trichardt chaos broke out at the Capricorn toll plaza.
Transport department spokesperson Matome Moremi says taxi drivers forced their way into the toll gate lanes.
Moremi says more north-bound lanes have been opened to ease the congestion.
“The other situation that we are having is that at Capricorn plaza our taxi drivers were creating problems there. But, our traffic officers are on the ground managing the situation. The toll gate management has opened all the gates there including the Makhado traffic circle people are not cooperating there.”
On a different note, some Zimbabwe nationals doing shopping in Musina say they’re relieved by the regime change to spend Christmas holidays back home.
They say that since the fall of former President Robert Mugabe’s government, security measures have been relaxed.
They say that they no longer fear attacks and victimisation by police.
High traffic volumes are expected to continue to Monday as more holidaymakers and migrants workers are still on the roads in their numbers.
Authorities have urged motorists and pedestrians to always obey the traffic rules.
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