Tolerance and a shift in behavior are important in improving road safety this festive season
During the current financial year the Gauteng Department of Community Safety has conducted a total of 2570 road safety educational programmes in primary, middle and high schools, fleet companies particularly heavy duty vehicles, in buses and taxi ranks
Festive season is a period where we experience high traffic volumes on Gauteng roads and a high number of road fatalities. Major highways such as the N1, N3 and N12 experience high volumes of traffic during the festive period and everyone is in a rush to reach their respective destinations. In all the travelling that will be undertaken by all road users be it the pedestrians or vehicle drivers, adherence to the rules of the roads is important to ensure that we all reach our destination safely. This year we call upon all road users to become road safety conscious in order to change the outlook on our roads.
In 2011, the United Nations (UN) adopted the Safe Systems Approach to Road Safety which is aimed at shifting the mind-set around road safety from a person-at-fault perspective to the more realistic acknowledgement that people, both drivers and pedestrians, will inevitably make mistakes on the road.
That being said, most of the mistakes on our roads can be avoided. Imagine if we can just stop texting or chatting while driving can surely minimize some of the silly mistakes we commit on our roads. Equally so, a person under the influence of alcohol or drugs cannot think as clear as the one who is sober.
Road safety education continues to plays a vital role in an attempt to change the mind-set and road users’ behaviour but at the end it is an individual who must own up and take responsibility of their safety and other road users alike. The problem is of course not limited to the behavior of motorists. Drunk and erratic pedestrians are a huge issue as well. Over the years statistics have shown that pedestrian fatalities are on the high compared to other forms of road fatalities.
This can be attributed to pedestrian turning a blind eye on the rules of road. For an example a pedestrian just cross the road without observing at the traffic lights, cross the road with their ear and head phone on and jaywalking to name a few.
During the current financial year the Gauteng Department of Community Safety has conducted a total of 2570 road safety educational programmes in primary, middle and high schools, fleet companies particularly heavy duty vehicles, in buses and taxi ranks. This was to reinforce road safety education and the importance of adhering to all the rules of the road at all times.
Lastly, I would like to wish all the citizens of Gauteng and visitors alike a safe festive season.
