News24.com | Over 700 000 vehicles expected for Gauteng on Easter Monday
Pretoria – The Department of Transport says it would have expected over 700 000 vehicles to have hit the road bound for Gauteng on Easter Monday by day’s end.
“The National Department of Transport is expecting all Gauteng bound national routes to be extremely congested this Easter Monday, especially the N1, N2, N3, N4, N12 and N17,” spokesperson Collen Msibi said in a statement on Monday.
The department said the end to both the Easter weekend and the school holidays meant an even busier than usual Easter Monday.
“With Gauteng schools opening tomorrow, each and every national route leading to Gauteng is expected to carry over 130 000 vehicles on average with the gradual traffic volume increase from morning until the evening,” Msibi said.
“This could see over 700 000 vehicles Gauteng bound this Easter Monday alone.”
He said the amount of vehicles that travelled on Thursday, the eve of Good Friday, was:
– N1: 172 283,
– N2: 73 621,
– N3: 136 094,
– N4: 129 489 and
– N12: 45 988
“This brought a total of just over 500 000 vehicles on these national routes [on Thursday],” he said.
From midnight on Monday morning to 13:00, the figures read:
– N1: 75 216; per hour: 6 268
– N3: 54 636; per hour: 4 553
– N4: 33 207; per hour: 2 767
– N2: 22 441; per hour: 1 870
– N12: 6 302; per hour: 525
The 24-hour figures for Monday will be released on Tuesday.
Thousands of traffic police officers will be deployed on these routes, Msibi said.
“The biggest contributing factor to road crashes is expected to be motorists wanting to cover a long distance at a shortest possible time.
“Motorists are therefore urged to exercise extreme care and be vigilant on the road,” he continued.
He urged them to rest after every 2 hours or every 200km to reduce road crashes related to fatigue, and seatbelts must be worn at all times, including back seats and for children.
According to statistics released by the Road Traffic Management Centre, this Easter weekend, 1738 vehicles were caught speeding, 354 for overloading, 843 without drivers licenses and 346 without public drivers permits.
The Department also expressed its heartfelt condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones on the N7 head-on collision where 8 people perished in the Western Cape.
“Our thoughts are also with the families who lost their loved ones due to reckless driving this Easter weekend.”
