Passengers boarding taxis in Durban and travelling to destinations across the province for the Easter Holidays, are appealing to drivers to take extra precautions and to follow the rules of the road.
Yesterday on Good Friday, taxis were still busy including long distance trips to neighbouring eSwatini.
During the same time last year over the Easter period, KwaZulu-Natal recorded 21 road fatalities, compared to the 54 recorded in 2021.
Passengers, Richard Sibiya and Fikile Thwala are appealing to drivers must follow the rules of the road.
“But we are hopeful to get a taxi because taxi marshals and rank managers are here and they have told us we will get a taxi. My plea to taxi drivers is to drive carefully, not to drink and drive, not to speed and respect other road users to everybody to be safe.”
“We are not at ease on holiday times like these, there are more road accidents. But we hope taxi drivers will be driving carefully and that people must make it a point to pray before taking the journeys.”
Meanwhile, street vendors at Durban taxi ranks are taking advantage of the increase in the number of travellers. Fast food and home cooked meals are among the items being sold. However, the traders say their businesses are not as booming as they had anticipated.
“Yes, we have been getting customers but there were not many people as it normally happened in the previous years. It affects our business because if my cooked food is not finished I have a problem because I don’t have a place to keep it fresh. The volume of people coming to the rank is not as big as it was in the previous years and it affects our businesses.”
Long-distance taxi commuters call for more traffic officials on the roads:
