Is road design or driver behaviour to blame for SA road fatalities?

Following a deadly Limpopo crash, which claimed the lives of 17 people this week, the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) blamed changes in driver behaviour and said it had no plans to add barriers on some of the country’s most dangerous roads.

As officials passed the buck on who was responsible for deciding what should be done to protect the lives of travellers, especially on the N1 highway in Limpopo, Sanral spokesperson Vusi Mona said the solution to the many accidents on the road was not in the physical separation of vehicles, but in changing driver behaviour.

“I have no insight about whether Sanral is going to proceed with [putting up barriers on some national roads] or whether that’s their intention,” he said.

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“They probably do not have the funding. Drivers need to change their behaviour – it is not the issue of the fine, but the payment that changes driver behaviour.

“The current rules just need to be informed.” According to transport spokesperson Collen Msibi, the
department had no idea of any plans as far as barriers were concerned. “We need to direct those concerns to Sanral because that is their core function in terms of doing that, or whether it is part of their plan,” said Msibi.

However, Professor Marianne Vanderschuren of University of Cape Town, president-elect of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering, said although barriers were not the quickest solution, as due process needed
to be followed, it would not be hard to implement.

“Depending on the speed and number of lanes, such as on the N1 highway in Limpopo, obviously a middle barrier is best practice,” she said.

“To put barriers up … if there is enough verge in the middle to actually put them up, then it can definitely be done.”

Bioethicist Dr Lee Randall previously told The Citizen many roads in SA did not have barriers and undivided highways were dangerous. She said ideally there should be an island between traffic going one way and the other, but in SA there was more focus on human behaviour and not nearly enough on the road design that should guide human behaviour.

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“If there isn’t room for an island, then you want some sort of barrier. Our road design in SA is problematic in lots of ways,” she said.

“And with that design change, the number of head-on collisions would be reduced.

“Head-on collisions are more likely to have fatalities than any other kind of crash.”