srogramme Director,
Honourable MECs present,
CEOs from Transport Agencies,
Our media community.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is important for me to start by sharing information on the process by which we arrive at these statistics. For us the reliability of the figures is attested to by the integrity of the process that those figures have been arrived at.
It should be noted that the South African Police Service (SAPS) record the fatal crashes and fatalities, and, thereafter, send data to the RTMC who capture, process and verify all the statistics in order to compile a consolidated report.
The “30-day international practice, which entails taking into account all people who die within 30 days after the occurrence of a road accident, is currently being implemented to enable accountability and comparability, for purpose of reporting for the Decade of Action targets.
Hence it should be understood that these are preliminary figures. This process is national standard that applies to provinces across the board.
It is with a great sense of duty and accountability for us to release to the South African public, statistics on road crashes and the impact these crashes have had on affected families and society at large. It is with even deeper sense of concern that we have become accustomed to the high occurrence of increased crashes and fatalities, which we have to bear news about, this time of the year.
For the period under review, there were 1 147 crashes nationally, with 1 376 fatalities. Provincial breakdown, in alphabetic order for the 2013/4 road crashes are as follows; Eastern Cape 158 with 190 fatalities, Free State 101 with 121 fatalities, Gauteng province 223 with 268 fatalities, KwaZulu/Natal 237 with 284 fatalities, Limpopo 112 with 134 fatalities, Northern Cape 36 with 43 fatalities, North West 73 with 88 fatalities, Western Cape 95 with 114 fatalities, Mpumalanga 112 with 134 fatalities.
May I pause here, to express our heart-felt condolences to all families that lost loved ones and family members from these crashes, and to say to those families whose members were injured or even maimed, that we wish them a speedy recovery.
While these crashes and attendant fatalities happened on our major arterial routes, some secondary and other minor routes were not spared the carnage. This partly because it has become common practice that motorists would avoid major routes where they expect road blocks and visible presence of law enforcement officers in large numbers.
The profile of these crashes paints an overwhelming impression of avoidable and/or manageable causes, but for reckless, irresponsible and disrespectful human conduct.
These causes include, but are not limited to:
- drunk driving
- over-speeding
- reckless overtaking
- driver-fatigue from long and uninterrupted driving
- failure to use seatbelts and other restraints
- un-roadworthy vehicles
- unlicensed and illegally licensed drivers.
Not deterred by all the unruly conduct on the part of some of our road users, law enforcers at provincial and national level worked very hard and very closely between them. Law Enforcement Officers worked around the clock to ensure safety of road users against all odds.
It is common cause that motorists will not use routes where there is heavy law enforcers’ presence and visibility. Although some secondary and minor routes were kept in check, a lot of effort was devoted to major national routes straddling across the provinces, and these were but limited to:
- N1 between Gauteng and Limpopo
- N1 between Gauteng, Free State and Western Cape,
- N2 between Eastern Cape and Western Cape,
- N2 between Eastern Cape and KwaZulu/Natal,
- N3 between Gauteng and KwaZulu/Natal,
- N4 between Gauteng and Mpumalanga,
- N4 between Gauteng and North West, and
- N12 between Gauteng, North West, Northern Cape and Western Cape.
During this period a total number of 845 road blocks were conducted:
- 745 782 vehicles were stopped,
- 201 473 notices were issued,
- 2 399 were discontinued,
- 2 449 vehicles were impounded,
- 3 170 drunk driving arrests were effected,
- 69 arrests for dangerous and negligent driving were effected
- 564 arrests for other offences.
Law enforcement officers have raised serious concern about behavior that needs to be corrected by motorists, such as:
- broken vehicles that are parked on the shoulder of the road, without switching on hazards or displaying a red triangle warning sign to other motorists
- motorists driving on the right and reluctant to observe “keep left pass right” regulation
- passengers who loiter on the verge of the road during stoppages of their vehicles
- impatience displayed by motorists and passengers at roadside traffic check points, toll gates and road construction sites,
- abrupt and dangerous stopping by motorists to pick up hitch-hikers
- open display of rage by motorists towards others.
It must be borne in mind also that the yearly increase in vehicular population has a bearing on the flow of traffic. This increase in the number of vehicles far outstrips the pace at which road construction, repairs and upgrades happen. It is estimated that in December 2012 there were 10 601 671 vehicles on our roads, as compared to 10 193 050 in December of 2011. This upsurge in motorised transport is bound to impact on incidents on our roads.
We are in the process of legislating driving schools to eliminate random and uncontrolled mushrooming of such schools which exacerbate corruption and endanger lives on the road. Currently, these schools contribute to the road carnage as we are currently experiencing.
We as government will uniformly and consistently apply of road safety regulations and measures at national, provincial and local level. No vehicle must be declared roadworthy by one testing station after the other one had disqualified the same vehicle. Motorists must be made to declare whether their vehicles had been tested and found wanting by one testing station before being tested by another testing station. Aspirant licensed drivers must also face a rigorous test process.
Ours is a 365 days commitment and action to road safety. As signatories to the 2011 -2020, UN Decade of Action for Road Safety, we shall continuously strive to make our roads safer. We shall relentlessly address issues of Education, Engineering and Enforcement, as the three pillars upon which our 365 days campaign is anchored.
I’m in consultation with Honourable Minster of Basic Education to incorporate road safety programmes into their curriculum. In giving expression to this commitment, we will uphold resolutions adopted at our October 2013 Road Safety Summit. At this summit we resolved to take practical action based on the five (5) pillars of the UN Decade’s campaign:
- Road Safety Management – conditions of law enforcement officers and road safety practitioners would be reviewed , national norms and standards would be adopted and traffic law enforcement would applied consistently at national, provincial and local levels of government, recruitment of more law enforcement officers would receive attention. The 17 000 law enforcement officers in the country are not sufficient to police our 750 000 kilometres of road network.
- Safer Roads and Mobility – most hazardous routes in all provinces would be singled out for continuous focus on education, engineering and enforcement, with education and awareness campaigns a compulsory project at each province. Rapid reporting and response systems and repair of potholes made a priority. Our S’hamba Sonke grant to provinces has started doing that already. We need to tighten implementation at provinces and insist on substantive targets and visible delivery.
- Safer Vehicles – technology to monitor driver fatigue and compel periodic rest. Regulations for compulsory truck driver rest are in place already and enforcement culture needs to be inculcated at all levels and must be part of the Education leg of our campaign. The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) and the National Regulator for Compulsory Standards (NRCS) must set minimum standards for vehicle fitness, especially for scholar transport. Child restraints regulations have since been introduced and are at implementation phase.
Periodic vehicle testing and testing environment and capacity are to be made compulsory, this should mitigate fraud and corruption as experienced now. The RTMC established the National Traffic Anti-Corruption Unit in November 2012, as a response to the challenge of ethical conduct that is facing the traffic fraternity, the fraternity has been synonymous with corruption and culture of corruption practices between the Officers and the South African public where corruption is deep rooted.
The Unit investigate cases alleged corruption within the environment and will also cooperate with other law enforcement agencies, the Unit augment its capacity by co-opting from other investigative agencies and establishing stakeholder relations and structures that will support its coordination activities.
- Safer Road Users – pedestrian infrastructure, such as overhead bridges, side-walks and alike be paid attention. The Moloto Corridor project envisages such measures and the Durban Bridge City project is concrete proof of what awaits us in future. Speed limit adjustment o 40 km/h in high density pedestrian areas to be introduced. Law Enforcement function to be elevated to essential service status.
- Post-Crash Care – Road Accident Fund (RAF) to consider paying for post-data capturing at RAF, and by so doing open up job opportunities for them.
It is apparent that our local sphere of government has not assimilated the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety in their programmes and operations. It therefore challenges our national transport agencies to work closely with provinces and local authorities to inculcate the significance and commit to enhance their capacity to move in tandem with national targets on road safety.
We have paid attention to the Road Safety Summit resolutions, initiated some already and ready to embark on almost all of them. A recommendation to develop a targeted Road Safety Act was made to the Summit.
One outstanding proposal was the formation of a Road Safety Advisory Council, something that I’m not only committed to but ready to announce soon. The RoSAC will consist of experts in road safety and related services, representation from Road Safety Councils, taxi and bus associations, and other road safety stakeholders – it must be as comprehensive and inclusive as possible.
Ladies and gentlemen, the responsibility for safety on our roads lies first and foremost, with the road user themselves. Values such as respect for life, responsible citizenship, love and caring for the country and its people and botho/ubuntu, should underpin our attitude and conduct on the road.
As part of our project on reconstruction and development of the soul, the Department of Transport has forged partnership with inter-faith based community and the Moral Regeneration Movement to help reorient our attitudes to one another on the roads.
In conclusion, may I wish you all a happy 2014 and call on all to join us in this difficult national duty to make our roads safer. Without discounting the existence of bad roads that require our attention, our internationally renowned state of the art roads must not be turned into death traps and gravesites for our other compatriots.
Today should be the day on which we commit to monitor our roads on a daily basis and intensify our actions to deal with peak seasons. Easter holiday is around the corner, and let us make sure that this, our Christian holiday, is not besmirched by conduct unbefitting the holiness of the season.
I thank you!
