Bus drivers urged to prioritise safety ahead of Easter weekend

Putco bus drivers gather for a defensive driver training and safety workshop in Soweto.

The Gauteng Traffic Police is urging bus drivers to take full responsibility for road safety ahead of the Easter rush. Speaking at a safety campaign in Dobsonville, spokesperson Sello Maremane stressed the importance of thorough pre-trip inspections to ensure buses are roadworthy before departure.

He says reckless behaviour, including unsafe overtaking and impatience in heavy traffic, continues to contribute to crashes.

Maremane also appealed to pedestrians to prioritise their own safety, cautioning against jaywalking and other dangerous conduct on busy roads and freeways.

“We’ve got a problem as far as our pedestrians are concerned. The main issue there is jaywalking and hitchhiking on our freeways. Now, the reason why this is also very important, what Putco is hosting here … sometimes a bus gets stuck along the road and is stationary; now, you’ll find that passengers are leaving that bus loitering on our freeway. Remember the speed limit on our freeway, maximum speed limit is 120 kilometers per hour, anything could happen.”

Meanwhile, bus operator Putco says it is ready for the busy Easter travel period, with more than 600 buses set to be deployed across key routes for religious destinations.

Putco Spokesperson Lindokuhle Xulu says the company is banking on advanced technology, including a 24-hour monitoring control centre and onboard surveillance cameras to ensure passenger safety.

He says the system tracks driver behaviour, speed and bus movement in real time.

“From now on, in terms of where we are, we’ve been able to master the craft of using this system and this includes checking driver behaviour, monitoring whether people are speeding or not, whether buses are stationary, where it’s not supposed to be stationary those are flags that are able to tell us that there is something wrong with the bus. So, that helps us in terms of the compliance that is required, especially when it comes to the high-pressure period that is the Easter weekend. I must say that we’ve been commissioned and trusted by many congregations. In fact, one of the notable ones is of course the Zion Christian Church but there’s also Universal Church.”