International

The city of Cape Town has launched a crackdown on motorists using cell phones while driving in a fresh bid to stem road carnages during Easter.

The move added momentum to the ‘No-Road-Death’ campaign already underway in Cape Town and the Western Cape province, officials said. Within 90 minutes of the start of the latest awareness raising campaign, traffic officers nabbed 19 drivers using their cellphones.

The drivers would have to pay a fine of 500 rand (about 66 U.S. dollars). The city is now considering starting a database so that by a third similar offense, the offender’s cell phone would be seized, according to the local newspaper Rapport. Such an offender would be allowed to remove the SIM card but would only get the phone back after a payment.

On Wednesday last week, authorities launched the “No-Road-Death” campaign in the hope of ensuring safe driving during the four-day Easter holiday which began on Friday. In the campaign, police and other law enforcement agencies enforced fatigue management on all major routes, placed Emergency Medical Rescue teams in high-risk locations and set up a hotline to report dangerous or reckless driving.