WC launches Easter Road Safety Campaign with 2 arrests

The Western Cape’s Easter Road Safety Campaign has got off to a positive start, with two drivers arrested for drunk and negligent driving.

The province launched the campaign in Khayelitsha on Friday, an area identified as a hotspot for pedestrian road fatalities.

During the Easter period last year, between 17 and 21 April, 22 people died on the province’s roads.

Eighteen of those were pedestrians, with provincial traffic authorities saying Khayelitsha contributed a significant number of the fatalities.

On Friday, a driver was arrested at a roadblock in Khayelitsha for drunk driving, after being found to be more than two times over the legal limit.

In a separate incident, a 17-year-old taxi driver was arrested after crashing into a road sign, fleeing the scene, and later being apprehended by traffic officers.

The Western Cape Chief Director for Traffic Management, Maxine Bezuidenhout, denounced the behaviour.

"This kind of reckless and illegal behaviour will not be tolerated. To motorists, slow down, obey the law, and don't drink and drive because there will be consequences."

Traffic authorities are urging both motorists and pedestrians to act responsibly on the roads during the Easter period.