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The Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA), in partnership with other transport agencies, local and provincial government, as well as with interfaith communities, will conduct National Prayer Day activities in five provinces. The programme will take the form of simultaneous Road Safety Prayers in five accident hotspots in the identified five provinces on Sunday 15 November 2020 at 09:00, as follows:
As the global community is aware, the United Nations declared the third Sunday of November as the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. The international road safety awareness initiative serves to acknowledge victims of road traffic crashes and their families.
The RTIA, together will the identified partners, has designed this unique community road safety awareness programme to commemorate the lives of those who perished on our roads. The day’s programme seeks to make a clarion call to all road users across the country to change their behaviour towards the reduction of fatalities on our road network.
South Africa experiences an average of just under 14 000 road deaths per annum, which equates to about 38 people daily. The increase in road fatalities is a great concern to government and the entire road user community. Hence, among the interventions that are being put in place is the national implementation of Administrative Adjudication of the Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) law enforcement programme. Currently AARTO is implemented in Tshwane and Johannesburg and it will be rolled out in the entire country as from 01 July 2021.
AARTO National Rollout is set to change the behaviour of the road users for the better. It will save our country from the ever-increasing number of people losing their lives on our roads. The fact that habitual infringers are beginning to feel the impact of AARTO in their pockets in areas where AARTO is operational, means the programme is going to yield the desired results. Law-abiding road users are encouraged to remain compliant with traffic laws and they will be untouched by AARTO.
The RTIA is urging members of the road user community to join hands in their respective spaces and pledge their support for the cause for safer roads. The festive season is upon us, and the idea to a National Prayer Day for Road Safety is aimed at galvanising community participation in road safety matters towards zero fatalities on our roads.
Members of the media are invited to join the National Prayer Day sessions in praying for safer roads on Sunday, 15 November 2020.