Transport Summit a reflective exercise on progress

More than 75% of all fatalities were a result of human factors, thus a behavioural issue of drivers. This is according to Deputy Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga who addressed stakeholders during the National Road Safety Summit hosted at Bolivia Lodge on Friday and Saturday.
Guests were welcomed by MEC for Transport and Community Safety Makoma Makhurupetje who indicated that the summit aims at providing information to stakeholders on what the department is doing to reduce road fatalities.
“When taken into consideration that Limpopo is the gateway to Africa, we remain the best province when it comes to strategising to reduce fatalities. We are experiencing high volumes of heavy vehicles from across the country and the continent travelling through Limpopo to their destinations,” Makhurupetje said.
Chikunga addressed stakeholders saying that the summit was a reflective exercise in which they assessed the progress made since the last summit and what obstacles there had been encountered in implementing resolutions taken then.

“In our mid-term report that reviewed our actions in the period 2010 – 2014 we focused on implementing strategic programmes such as systematic road safety strategies that are tackling the main risk factors for traffic crashes (speed, alcohol, non-compliance with traffic rules); advancing technical norms and standards for road infrastructure and vehicles and road safety priorities shifted from motorised urban traffic to vulnerable road users in rural areas.”
In the period under review the department nevertheless had continued to witness resilient habits that kept fatalities high instead of dropping as a result of interventions carried. “In the light of that disturbing observation, that is, the resilience of fatality numbers over that time, we had resolved to continue improving the implementation. Over the ensuing period we dealt with different categories of road users and devised further strategies, legislation and policies towards improving road safety.
This is meant to deal with behaviour change as over time it had been discovered that more than 75% of all fatalities were a result of human factors, thus a behavioural issue,” Chikunga said.
On accidents involving pedestrians Chikunga said because persons on foot and cyclists remained vulnerable to road crashes there has been emphasis on ensuring full provincial implementation of the new Pedestrian Facility Guidelines and the new SA Road Safety and Speed Limits Manuals; supporting the commitment by provinces to carry out planned, continuous, multi-disciplinary upgrades of identified urban and rural hazardous locations and expanding rural road upgrade/maintenance programmes nationwide supported by systematic funding of emergent construction SMMEs – while at the same time integrating safety training into the process of improving road quality and visibility.
On traffic law enforcement Chikunga said that the department is working towards the introduction of a 24 hour shift for traffic law enforcement officers. “This will enable us to introduce a third working shift for a 24/7 presence of officers on our roads. We are also consulting key stakeholders within the transport sector, including the labour movement to ensure that this shift is implemented.”
In conclusion Chikunga hoped the summit would be able to tackle current issues and for its resolutions to be implemented objectively as the department continues to try and find sustainable road safety solutions.

Story & photos: RC Myburgh
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