Motor Industry Staff Association urges motorists to avoid night driving after recent fatal accidents
The Motor Industry Staff Association (MISA) has urged motorists to avoid driving at night if possible after recent fatal crashes which resulted in multiple deaths.
Image: Henk Kruger / Independent Newspapers
The Motor Industry Staff Association (MISA) has issued a strong appeal to motorists to avoid travelling at night, especially in adverse weather conditions, citing a worrying trend in fatal crashes that occur during these hours.
Martlé Keyter, MISA’s Chief Executive Officer of Operations, noted that recent fatal crashes occurred late at night when visibility was limited. “According to research by insurance companies, night-time accidents are nine times more severe than those that happen during the day,” she said.
Keyter echoed the plea by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) urging drivers to avoid travelling at night, particularly when it is raining. “We cannot afford to keep losing lives like this. We appeal to motorists to consider the time and conditions before getting on the road,” she said.
This comes in the wake of a recent devastating head-on collision on the R63 between Adelaide and Maqoma (Fort Beaufort) in the Eastern Cape, which claimed 15 lives at midnight. A fully loaded minibus taxi and a bakkie were involved in the crash, and five other passengers were injured.
Days earlier, the bodies of three police officers and the Volkswagen Polo they were travelling in were recovered from the Hennops River in Centurion. Constables Linda Cebekhulu, 24, Keamogetswe Buys, 30, and Boipelo Senoge, 20, were last seen travelling near the Grasmere Toll Plaza on the N1 on their way to Limpopo. Authorities suspect that their vehicle crashed during a storm and veered off the road.
In another tragic night-time incident in January, 17 people lost their lives in a collision between a truck and a minibus at Van Reenen’s Pass on the N3. Only a baby girl survived.
“Night-time driving presents additional risks such as compromised vision, fatigue, and reduced visibility due to darkness and bad weather,” Keyter warned. “We urge motorists to plan their trips for daylight hours whenever possible to reduce the risk of these devastating tragedies.”