TRANSPORT Minister Sbu Ndebele has expressed shock at the death of more than 18 people in road accidents across the country on Friday and Saturday.

Ndebele was speaking after three deadly road crashes claimed the lives of motorists and pedestrians in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.

Transport Department spokesman Logan Maistry said the worst accident happened on Saturday on the R103 at Peace Town near Harrismith, where eight people were reported killed and 18 others sustained multiple injuries in a crash between a minibus taxi and a car.

The day before, on Friday, a mother was critically injured and her two sons killed on the N2 highway near Shaka's Rock after they were hit by a car while trying to cross the busy highway.

Maistry said in Mpumalanga a head-on collision claimed the lives of five people on Saturday on the N17. This deadly crash took place minutes before one in Thulamahashe.

"Two learners and a teacher were reported killed when a school bus crossing the railway line near the Rolle train station in Thulamahashe collided with a train.

"The bus, carrying approximately 60 learners and three teachers, was on a school tour in Limpopo when the accident occurred in the early hours of the morning," Maistry said.

Ndebele sent his condolences to the families of all those killed in the different road crashes.

"We wish those injured a speedy recovery," he said.

Ndebele said the average of 38 people losing their lives every day on the country's roads was "totally unacceptable".

He said the Department of Transport had identified road safety as a "government priority" and added: "The Road Traffic Management Corporation must ensure the administrative adjudication of road traffic offences is successfully implemented."

He said the department was training 260 traffic officers for the newly-established National Traffic Law Enforcement Unit and that those who continued to break rules would face the full might of the law.