Manny de Freitas MP Shadow Minister of Transport Democratic Alliance writes:
The over 45 vehicle pile-up on the N12 in Alberton is an unambiguous wake-up call that we are in the midst of an epidemic.
I’ve been saying this for years.
The world is freaking out that over 3 000 people have died as a result of Ebola.
This is quite right! There is proportional reaction and emotion from everyone. Yet unbelievably one hardly hears as much as a “peep” about the
on-average 14 000 annual deaths on our roads.
It is only when a dramatic and graphic crash such as this takes place that people take notice.
Until government starts looking at transport holistically, road death statistics will continue to be astronomically high.
These statistics started to move up sharply in the ’90s when businesses were forced to move their goods from rail to road.
Rail had become so inefficient and slow that moving goods on rail was simply no longer an option for business.
As truck sales, and their usage went up, so did death and fatalities.
Government’s response to this epidemic was by making the problem worse.
While all rail infrastructure previously fell all within one government entity – in governments’ infinite non-wisdom, they split rail operations in two –Transnet looks after the rail movement of goods and Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa) focuses on the movement of people.
We now have a situation where two entities have different responsibilities while using one set of rail infrastructure.
While we have two government entities pulling in opposite directions as officials build their respective empires, we have more and more people dying every day on our roads as more and more trucks fill our roads countrywide.
Government needs to immediately amalgamate all Transnet and Prasa operations.
Doing this will ensure that planning is done holistically and in a coordinated manner.
With this as a foundation, it would ensure planning is done holistically so that all services and operations become efficient, effective and economical.
Business would then very quickly, and happily, move their goods onto rail and abandon their trucks.
When this happens, we will see a dramatic drop in road-related deaths as well as a slowdown of price increases of goods as they will be cheaper to transport on rail.
We need action from the Minister now so horrific crashes stop.
