Road Safety Shouldn’t Be a Seasonal Concern

5 December 2019

With the imminent increase in traffic volumes all over the country due to the approaching mid-summer holidays, National Government’s calls for road safety will be on repeat in a last-ditch effort to lessen carnage, fatalities and injuries on our roads.

While any effort aimed at influencing the public to behave more safely on our roads is commendable, evidence from the Road Traffic Management Corporation’s (RTMC) ‘2018 Road Crash Statistics Report’ shows that little has been achieved amidst millions being spent on attempts to change road use behaviour amongst the millions of road users in South African.

Reports estimate that 90% of crashes are the result of driver error, this points to how little impact the current road safety strategy has on changing road user behaviour. This is largely due to the fact that road safety has been relegated to a seasonal concern without any sustained effort to educate road users about the importance of road safety throughout the year.

South Africa has some of the worst road traffic injury statistics in the world. According to statistics, more than 16 000 people die on South African roads yearly.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that in order to reduce road crash trends and lessen fatalities and injuries that are especially prevalent this time of the year, we need to ensure that road safety calls are a 365-day campaign.

Furthermore, the DA is of the view that a key component of addressing the carnage on our road will be an increase in the number of traffic officers to vehicle ratio.

The DA believes that driver behaviour will only change if motorists know that there is a high probability of being caught and receiving penalties - the current ratio of one traffic officer for 725 drivers paints a very grim picture and does little to inspire confidence.

The DA wishes to thank all law enforcement, emergency staff and officials who will be involved in efforts to minimize and assist in crashes. They are our unsung heroes often working under severe conditions and challenging circumstances.

Issued by Chris Hunsinger, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Transport, 5 December 2019