Video

GEORGE NEWS AND VIDEO - George Herald received a video taken by an irate, anonymous motorist showing a government vehicle driving over the speed limit through Kaaimans Pass.

The vehicle is going at 80km/h in a 60km/h zone.
The video was recorded on Monday 23 May at about 15:00.

From the video it is obvious that the driver is recording the video with his cellphone while driving and following the government vehicle at the same speed.

George Herald forwarded the video to the Western Cape Department of Transport and Public Works and Jandrè Bakker, the department's head of communications, responded as follows:

We will not disclose names.

The reason is also of lesser importance to us; only if it is an approved staff member who responds to an emergency will the apology be accepted in any case. These authorised personnel have the necessary training and their travel data will serve as proof of what emergency they rushed to. 

Another example: provincial traffic officers if they chase a vehicle that fails to stop on request. There is no excuse for breaking the road rules by non-emergency / security personnel.

Watch the supplied video here:

What happens / the process:
All government motor transport vehicles have a tracker system installed.

With each trip, data is generated and that data is used to record, among other things, violations (regardless of whether there was a camera, or it was caught in a speed trap). This data is processed by an automated system. The fleet officers then receive the report and the necessary action is taken. This includes a written warning that the driver of the vehicle as well as their line manager must acknowledge. If the driver again makes themselves guilty of such behaviour, it may lead to more severe sanctions. For example, exceeding the speed limit is considered by us to be an abuse of the asset, an offence.

Every person who signs out a vehicle must use a security mechanism (tag) to switch on the vehicle. The car cannot be switched on without this tag. It is directly linked to the staff member's staff data. The data therefore indicates who the driver was, their route, trip authority number as well as driving behaviour.

In this particular case, I am now compelled to bring the matter to the attention of government motor transport, which will then investigate it and apply the appropriate action and sanction. This is if the matter has not already been dealt with based on the date of the transgression.

We encourage the public to report the misuse of state assets so that we can take the appropriate action immediately and not necessarily when the trip data is checked at the end of the trip.

There is an incorrect assumption of the person speaking on the video and that is that government vehicles (vehicles with a G-number plate) are not subject to fines. The driver who signs for the vehicle is responsible for that vehicle as well as for all fines received during such a trip.

Driver also broke road rules
What does worry me though is that, regardless of the intent, we cannot look the other way; the driver of the vehicle also broke the road rules. This includes exceeding the speed limit on the road in question as well as handling a mobile device while the vehicle was on and moving. Distracted driving is a great evil and contributes to numerous collisions and crashes.

The reason for mentioning this is not to divert attention from the transgression that has been captured, but simply to show that "two wrongs do not make a right".

What should the person seeing the transgression have done:

What we suggest is that someone who sees something like this would rather ask someone else in the vehicle to handle the camera, or simply call us through their hands-free system. 

While it is useful to have such a video, all the information we need if someone wants to report something is as follows:

• Registration number
• Place where the incident took place
• Time of the incident
• Basic description of the incident
• If the person does not have a hands-free system in their vehicle, we suggest that they contact us as soon as they arrive at their destination.

As already mentioned, the system will indicate the offence(s) to us at the end of the trip, but if the public wants to report it immediately, the above is the information we will need to act.

We thank the member of the public for bringing it under our attention. We plead with all road users to never use their mobile devices when driving.

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