How to reduce the carnage on our roads

Another minister, another commitment to reduce the carnage on our roads. This time, it was recently appointed Transport Minister Blade Nzimande – with suitably lugubrious countenance – informing us that 510 people died in vehicle-related incidents over Easter.

That is up a worrying 14% on the previous year. It’s a reminder that in South Africa, if you don’t get murdered, you will likely die in a car crash.

Over the past 10 years, government has spent tens of millions of rands on nationwide campaigns to educate motorists, passengers and pedestrians about road safety. It hasn’t worked.

The much-touted Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) structure – which is aimed at improving not only driver behaviour, but also relieving pressure on the judicial system from vehicular-related offences – doesn’t look like making much of a difference, either.

In our opinion, Minister Nzimande, you will see a dramatic decrease in road deaths if you seriously tackle three areas.

Firstly, ensure the sky-high levels of corruption in the driver licence system are addressed. So many of the drivers on our roads are either unlicensed, or have obtained them through bribery, that they themselves constitute a national disaster area.

Secondly, law enforcement should be stepped up, so that moving violations, as well as unroadworthy vehicles, are made a priority. Traffic regulation which focuses on revenue collection will never work.

Finally, there needs to be basic traffic education, beginning in primary school. Creating awareness of the dangers of moving vehicles and educating youngsters in being able to judge distance and speed will go a long way towards reducing the huge numbers of pedestrians killed each year.

If you don’t sort this mess out, Minister Nzimande, you will be an accomplice to these needless killings.

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