Safety, Phenye Vilakazi, during the provincial media launch of the Easter
Arrive Alive campaign, Rustenburg
7 April 2009
It is my pleasure to be with you here this morning as part of my
department's effort to re-emphasise the message of road safety during this
Easter period.
Through the Arrive Alive campaign we continue to fight the unnecessary loss
of human life during this period which is synonymous with many religious and
holiday activities.
I welcome our officials and members of the media who have played a
significant role in assisting us to spread the road safety message to our road
users including drivers, passengers, pedestrians and livestock owners. Despite
the many successes we have registered with this programme in the past, we
continue to witness a tragedy of unequalled size on our roads, especially in
busy periods like these.
We all know that we can still do better, but there are a number of reasons
why we are unable to totally eliminate crashes on our roads. These include, for
instance, carelessness, misjudgement of traffic or not following traffic
rules.
Transport Minister Jeff Radebe has recently announced that the Road Safety
Strategy has achieved some success, in that the deaths per 100 million vehicle
kilometres travelled have dropped in the past year particularly during the
festive season. But I must hasten to say that every death on our roads is one
too many, and that each and every death or serious injury is a tragedy for the
individuals, the families and communities and for the nation.
More than 90 percent of deaths on the roads follow a traffic violation. This
is real crime, and communities and individuals must take responsibility for
their behaviour and the behaviour of their families and friends in order for us
to have a successful reduction in deaths.
This is not a problem for authorities to solve alone, as together we can
turn the tide. Today, I am pleased to say that government is ready to undertake
its law actions to address offences taking place on our roads in a regular and
effective manner. History has shown that it is possible to make a successful
contribution to the fight against road accidents. Despite, it is encouraging to
note that last year during Easter it was possible to reduce the national road
death toll by 55 deaths or 23,8 percent from a total of 319 in 2007 to 243 in
2008.
In the North West province, we managed to reduce the Easter weekend deaths
by two deaths or 9,58 percent from 21 in 2007 to 19 in 2008. This number of
deaths includes five drivers, eight passengers and six pedestrians. Our
analysis for the fatal road accidents in the province during last yearâs Easter
period shows that almost half of the accidents were caused by speed, which
contributed 44 percent of these accidents.
The second main cause of the accidents was jaywalking and hit and run, which
contributed 17 percent each. Other causes include drunken driving and unsafe
overtaking, which contributed five percent each and mechanical problems such as
faulty brakes and tyre burst, which contributed a total of 11 percent of the
fatal accidents.
If we scrutinise the statistics even further, you will realise that 71
percent of the fatal accidents during last yearâs Easter period were caused by
drivers either violating the traffic laws or out of sheer negligence. This
means that drivers contributed the most. We must be worried, though, that even
pedestrians contributed to the 17 percent of fatal accidents as well as vehicle
problems that contributed 11 percent.
More than 70 percent of these fatal accidents occurred in the Dr Ruth
Segomotsi Mompati and Dr Kenneth Kaunda district municipalities, while Ngaka
Modiri Molema and Bojanala Platinum district municipalities contributed just
over 28 percent combined. Last year, we deployed members of our provincial
traffic, municipal traffic and the South African Police Service to all our
major routes.
We managed to arrest and issue fines to 2 146 people on offences such as speed,
drunken driving, unroadworthy vehicles and other crimes and traffic
violations.
This Easter period, we want to enhance positive driver behaviour and
attitude; increase awareness about road traffic safety issues to drivers,
passengers, pedestrians and livestock owners; reduce road crashes and
fatalities; and create fatigue management strategies.
We will combine our road safety strategy, communication programme and
law-enforcement plan into formidable programme that will ensure that we fare
better in our Easter Arrive Alive campaign. We are deploying thousands of our
Provincial and Municipal Traffic Police and members of the South African Police
Service.
We will focus on all traffic law violations, especially over speeding,
driver fitness and vehicle fitness and pedestrian safety. We will monitor
mainly our busy roads, places of entertainment and other hotspots that have a
potential to create problems of law-enforcement.
And lastly I wish all the people of this province and the country at large
safe and sound Easter holidays.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Transport, Roads and Community Safety, North West
Provincial Government
7 April 2009
Source: North West Provincial Government (http://www.nwpg.gov.za)
