Road safety under scrutiny

THABAZIMBI – Thabazimbi Traffic Department held a Road Safety Promotion Day in Thabazimbi on Friday 14 March on the corner of Warmbaths Road and the Lephalale turn-off.
According to Johnny Motaung, head of Protection Services in Thabazimbi, the idea was to impress on the local community the importance of road safety not only on a national level, but on grass roots level. He was disappointed that the headmasters of schools, who were also invited, did not show up at the campaign. At this same spot a 9 year old boy of Ysterberg Primary was run over by a car two weeks ago.
Apart from the speeches, local dancers performed and T-shirts and caps were handed out at the 3 way stop. The T-shirts had printed on them “Walk or drive safe for we value your life”. The T-shirts were sponsored by the Thabazimbi Municipality.
According to Thabazimbi’s Emergency Medical Services there were 23 road accidents during January 2008 and 26 during February 2008 in the Thabazimbi municipal district, in which state ambulances were used. No fatalities occurred.
Mr Motaung said that during Easter it is important that drivers practise defensive driving. This entail responsible, cautious and considerate driving where actions of other road users are anticipated. It is also important that pedestrians wear visible clothing and avoid walking on the road when drunk, he said.
* On Thursday 13 March, the Traffic Department was doing law enforcement on illegal taxies in front of Trentyre. Lately bakkies have been operating illegally as taxies transporting farm workers and miners to their place of work at a fee. It seems that the legal taxies sometimes were late which made the workers arrive late at work.
Mr Motaung explained that bakkies are never issued with taxi licences and even when used by farmers to transport their workers to and from town, they need to have specified guardrails at the back.
Taxi owners and drivers have to be in possession of a number of permits and/or licences. The driver of the taxi needs a professional driving permit which allows the driver to transport people at a fee. The vehicle needs to be in possession of the roadworthy certificate (which differs from a roadworthy certificate for an ordinary vehicle and which needs to be renewed annually) and a taxi also has to have an operating licence, which allows it to operate on a specific route.
In case of an accident, these precautions help cover taxi owners, drivers and passengers in taxies. However, the bakkies that are currently transporting people to and from their work places, are operating illegally. No safety precautions are in place and no claims can be instituted against taxi drivers and owners in case of accidents. Commuters are, however, not fully aware of these risks when they make use of the illegal transport.
The bakkie owners were warned to stop this illegal transporting of passengers and to repay commuters the money they paid in advance for the month.