MINISTER of Transport, Dipuo Peters, announced that there was a 46 per cent decline in Easter road accidents.
Peters attributed this to heightened Easter activations, rigorous public road safety education campaigns and law enforcement operations rolled out by transport partners, the youth and people living with disabilities.
The Road Accident Fund’s chief executive officer, Dr Eugene Watson, said, “As a transport entity and the caring arm of government, the RAF is privileged that it was able to play an important part in not only driving awareness, but also ensuring meaningful, interactive conversation took place amongst road users through its My Road Your Road campaign.”
The campaign, which targeted drivers, commuters and pedestrians, sought to not only encourage road users to obey the rules of the road, but also be more considerate and aware of others around them. While there were fewer fatalities (156 compared to 287 over the same period last year), a lesser number of deaths is still few too many and we need to start engaging in unselfish road practices. My Road Your Road seeks to engender a willingness and readiness for people to share with others: to yield, give right of way or take into consideration the needs of other road users.
While the focus was on the Easter weekend, the message is one that resonates throughout the year and will make a significant contribution towards South Africa achieving the 50 per cent reduction in crashes as espoused in the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.
“Our Pretoria regional office and other similar offices in Johannesburg, KwaZulu-Natal, East London, and Cape Town will also originate claims for loss of support for any surviving dependants and qualifying heads of damages for the injured as stipulated in the Act. Alternatively, claimants can access the RAF’s services at any of its 98 hospital service centres, five customer service centres in Bloemfontein, Mafikeng, Polokwane, Kimberly and Nelspruit, or satellite offices countrywide,” said Watson.
The RAF urges road users to be ever-vigilant and take a shared responsibility in ensuring they arrive alive at their destinations. In addition, the fund reiterates before the start of the second school term on 5 April for adults to take greater responsibility in ensuring youngsters or school children are safe on the roads.
Road safety is the collective responsibility of all road users, young and old, and it is imperative that we all play our part in reducing accidents and fatalities.
