If you are a traffic violator, you will want to read this
WOW conducted an interview with JP Smith, a member of the mayoral committee of safety and security, who informed us on the biggest traffic issues right now, and what the WC is planning on doing to traffic violators.
What are the big traffic issues at the moment.
I would say the disregard of the traffic laws and not paying fines. We are dead set on bringing fine holders down, this is our number one aim at the moment, as people are dodging fines left right and centre or they speed anyway and just stop in front of the cameras. What we are doing at the moment is implementing ASOD cameras, which measures how fast you drive in a certain amount of time. This is the only speed cameras that actually work, and death tolls are already plummeting. We are also making sure there are no loopholes in the system – so if you receive a fine in the future, you WILL have to pay it. I once heard a quote which states, ”it’s not the severity of punishment, but the certainty of punishment that gets to people.”
For me a main focus is fine recovery rate, we have increased traffic courts, we now have 11, so that our courts can handle more fine cases per day, otherwise the rest of the fines just gets slashed and people get away with it.
We are also working on the provincial traffic acts which now says that we can impound your car if you drive without a licence or vehicle registration. Further, we are doing a lot of road safety awareness, we’ve increased our road safety awareness quite a bit. We have increased our traffic enforcemant numbers and we have segregated the traffic enforcement from the metro police to create a firewall between crime fighting metro police and traffic officials.
We are also putting a strong focus on the primary causes of road death – speeding, alcohol, distracted driving, safety belts and following distances. We are really focusing on this, we had the ‘name-and-shame’ campaign with Lead SA where we got the names and ID numbers of persons who had been found guilty of drunk driving so that we could publicly shame them, but unfortunately the national government pulled the plug on this.
There is this attitude among South Africans that traffic violations is a petty crime comparing to all the other crimes happening in South Africa. This isn’t true as South African roads are becoming slaughterhouses and a vehicle is just a large fire arm that you are sitting in.
What is your top tip for driving on the road?
DON’T use cellphones. There is no rewind button on your childs face after you crash. There is no redo button for life.
This is really a big issue, therefore we are impounding about a thousand cell phones per month , and you have to pay R1 000 release fee.
Any tips for the upcoming holiday season?
Don’t drink and drive. This year we are really going to nail drink-drivers.
If you are taking long trips, stop frequently and switch drivers.
Keep safe following distances
Drive at a sensible speed.