Defensive driving training held for scholar transport drivers
At the end of the training attendees were able to recognise driving hazards and dangerous conditions on the road.
In order to improve scholar transport behaviour and advance them by teaching them about road safety, the Road Accident Fund (RAF) held an advanced driving event on Monday, November 7 at Davidsonville Recreation Centre.
Stakeholders present on the day were the South African Network for Women in Transport (SANWIT), Greater Metro Learner Transport Association, Greater Johannesburg Regional Structure and Gauteng Education Transport Service (GETS).
A representative from RAF Thabo Makwela addressed the attendees and explained the purpose and the process of claiming.
Makwela said that the programme is targeted at drivers of public transport as well as drivers of scholar transport.
Dynamic Road Safety (DRS) gave training to the attendees while explaining that the purpose of the training is to improve driver awareness.
DRS Trainer Marcel Veeran said that defensive driving is about teaching motorists to be weary of everyone around them.
He also reminded everyone to respect the rules of the road and made them aware of the possible road hazards.
At the end of the training attendees were able to recognise driving hazards and dangerous conditions on the road.
According to Veeran there are approximately 25 million drivers in South Africa and 40 fatalities a day with the contributing factors to road crashes being 90% human, 5% vehicle and 5% road environment.
Maria Raoleka from SANWIT who is the organiser of workshops for scholar transport drivers said that the workshops assist drivers to improve their driving on the road.
“The reason we are doing this advanced driving training is that we want our scholar transport drivers to improve their driving and be very careful on the roads. Above all we want to thank RAF for giving our drivers the opportunity to have this workshop, it’s for the first time that scholar transport drivers are receiving such training,” said Raoleka.
GETS Regional Project Manager Themba Yende told the Record that they are grateful for the opportunity and hope that drivers will have learned a lot on safety.
“We would like to thank RAF for the opportunity and for assisting our drivers to transport learners to their schools safely.
“This is a very big event that we had in order to assist all the drivers to know what is needed on the road,” said Yende.
