Johannesburg – Alarmed by the death of 15 people in two deadly crashes, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) on Saturday called on truck drivers to exercise extra caution on the roads.
In the hours of Saturday morning, an articulated truck and a Toyota Venture collided along the N1 between Mookgopong and Mokopane in Limpopo.
Nine people – five adults and four children – all occupants from the Venture died on the scene.
On Friday, six people were killed on R55 in Clydesdale, near Umzimkhulu in KwaZulu-Natal, when a truck pulling a trailer was involved in a head-on collision with a passenger vehicle.
The RTMC said it was concerned about the road crashes involving trucks.
The RTMC said its Crash Investigation Unit and the SA Police Service are investigating the two deadly crashes, which claimed a total of 15 lives.
With many parts of the country experiencing wet weather, the RTMC called “for extra caution to be exercised on the roads to reduce these avoidable crashes”.
The RTMC added: “Trucks have to put more effort to assist the country’s road safety efforts”.
The MEC for Transport and Community Safety in the Limpopo Province, Florence Radzilani, has also expressed “serious concern” regarding the loss of life on the road.
MEC Radzilani urged motorists to ensure that their vehicles were roadworthy before undertaking their journeys.
Commenting on the Limpopo crash in which nine people died, MEC Radzilani said it “is disturbing news, and it happens at a time when the Department is putting concerted efforts to ensure road safety, as we head towards the Festive Period”.
The MEC has also sent messages of condolences to the families of the deceased and has committed that the Department will be focusing its Festive Season road safety campaigns on roadworthiness and overloading.
DEADLY COLLISION: At least nine people died after an articulated truck and a Toyota Venture collided along the N1 between Mookgopong and Mokopane in Limpopo
