With Easter mere days away, Trans African Concessions (TRAC) is preparing to accommodate the escalation of traffic typically experienced on the N4 during the coming weekend.
This is traditionally the busiest time of the year with thousands of motorists travelling between Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Mozambique during the four-day period. Therefore it is imperative, that as concessionaires of the N4 Toll Road, TRAC implements increased visibility initiatives as well as strategies that will reduce response time to incidents, accidents and emergencies.
Since 2010 this has been a huge success, thanks to the reputable TRAC N4 Easter Rescue and Road Safety Campaign and will take place fromThursday 2 April until Monday 6 April.
A variety of emergency-response teams will be stationed at Alzu Petroport in Middelburg on Thursday and Monday (the busiest days on the highway) from 10:00 to 22:00 from where they will be dispatched simultaneously in the event of an incident or accident. The participating services include ambulances, paramedics, the flying squad, Fire and Rescue, provincial traffic, pathology units, TRAC Accident Response and TRAC Road Assist Response. The EMS helicopter will be on stand-by at base camp throughout the campaign.
Smaller response units will also be deployed at strategic points on the N4 route, namely Bronkhorstspruit, Middelburg, Milly’s and Nelspruit, in an effort to enhance incident or accident response time even further.
This year Vodacom has joined the campaign to promote its new M-Pesa initiative to the travelers who stop at Alzu. Vodacom M-Pesa is a mobile wallet that one can activate by simply dialing *111# and following the prompts.
The mobile network will be represented by four promoters at the TRAC N4 Easter Rescue and Road Safety base camp who will hand out flyers about this new initiative. Kids will have the opportunity to take pictures with Moa and Moesha while two Mzalas will do M-Pesa activations and training. The promoters will also interact with the motorists and brief them about this new product.
TRAC’s Easter initiative will be led by TRACassist and the 24-hour TRAC helpdesk, which will act as the communications hub. The helpdesk is usually the first to be notified of incidents and therefore plays a vital role in rescue and road safety efforts. TRAC helpdesk agents will be on duty throughout the campaign to call out the emergency-services teams from the central dispatch area and to keep motorists, media and all other relevant parties informed of any situation on and off the road.
Over the years this campaign has earned a remarkable reputation as has contributed to a reduction in accidents on the N4 during the Easter period where zero fatalities have been recorded for the past two years - 2013 and 2014. TRAC is proud to bring these services to its N4 users again and urges everyone using our beautiful road this Easter, to make full use of the initiative by calling the TRAC Helpdesk on 0800 87 22 64 for quick and immediate response to any problem.
