November 5, 2003
By Lucky Sindane
ROAD users in Johannesburg, and across the whole of Gauteng, have been warned - Operation Juggernaut is underway to clamp down on bad driving and unroadworthy vehicles.
And in Operation Juggernaut's sights are the heavy-duty vehicles that have been making newspaper headlines recently, with reports of 58 fatalities in four accidents involving buses or trucks during October alone.
Gauteng MEC for public transport, roads and works, Khabisi Mosunkutu this week warned that such a situation would not be allowed to continue. "We want to send an unequivocal message to those driving unroadworthy vehicles or who drive recklessly - the gloves are off."
Mosunkutu, who met with the mayors of Gauteng this week, announced that Operation Juggernaut would complement the province's ongoing Drive-4-Life project.
Drive-4-Life programmes see speed traps and roadblocks being regularly set up around Gauteng. Traffic and emergency service officials on duty at the sites are equipped to deal with any emergencies or offer roadside information to drivers. Drive-4-Life also has traffic officers patrolling the roads.
Operation Juggernaut will target trucks, mini bus taxis and all public passenger transport modes. There will be roadblocks around the metropolitan areas and every suspicious-looking vehicle within a 20 kilometre of a weighbridge or vehicle-testing centre will be inspected. Traffic officials will be checking the brakes, steering wheels, tyres and lights of all heavy-duty vehicles.
Mosunkutu also announced the introduction of a mobile midi bus, equipped with the technology to allow traffic officials to carry out spot checks from the side of the road. The remote communication system in the bus, a sophisticated computer link to a central data base, will enable traffic officials to check unpaid fines, vehicle registrations, warrants of arrest and drivers' licences. The weight of heavy vehicles will also be monitored on the spot.
The mobile unit will be able to be set up as part of any roadblock.
According to Mosunkutu the Drive-4-Life programme had monitored various statistics in connection with road transport in the province over the past year: during 1 December 2002 and 13 January 2003 244 people had died on Gauteng's roads. Fifty one percent of these had been pedestrians.
"Something has to be done," the MEC said: "We are not going to tolerate the loss of lives on our roads."
He announced that plans had been put into place to reduce accidents, including identifying particularly dangerous areas and setting up seven satellite stations along these routes.
"We have also improved our road markings and have also stepped up the anti-fraud and corruption measures at our driver and vehicle testing stations," Mosunkutu added.
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