Hopes for an Easter with less accidents

Provincial traffic departments have their fingers crossed in hopes that the number of road accidents do not increase as thousands of holiday-makers hit the road.

Spokeswoman at the Gauteng traffic department Busaphi Nxumalo said they were expecting very high traffic volumes on Monday.

Nxumalo said they had counted 1780 vehicles per hour on the N3 and 1970 vehicles on the N1 by yesterday afternoon.

“We are expecting the volumes to go up around 4 pm today because more people are making their way home. On Thursday evening we had 2478 vehicles on the N1‚” she said.

Nxumalo said they would keep monitoring the situation in hopes that more accidents do not happen.

Spokeswoman at the transport department in Limpopo Kagiso Mootane said they were also expecting high volumes of traffic on Monday as millions of people make their way from the Moria pilgrimage and elsewhere.

“Our message to the people is that they must abide by the rules of the road‚” Mootane said.

However Ncedo Kumbana from the Eastern Cape provincial department said traffic volumes were lower compared to previous days.