Programme director, Councillor Zakes Moeletsi
Honourable acting Executive Mayor, Councillor Thabo Mphahlele
Mayor of Bela-Bela, Hendrina Ledwaba
Speaker of Bela-Bela, Fatima Maloka
Honourable members of the Portfolio Committee on Transport and other members of the legislature
Head of Department of Roads and Transport and his executive management team
Members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) and traffic representatives of the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC)
Representatives of Road Accident Fund (RAF)
Invaluable stakeholders from the transport industry
Leadership of the taxi industry and Operating License Board
Sponsors
Members of the media
Ladies and gentlemen
Thank you for gracing our event, the launch of the 2009 Festive Season Arrive Alive campaign. We are here to set in motion the Arrive Alive campaign, which marks the beginning of a concerted road safety effort during this crucial period in the life our province.
The urgency to deal with issues of road safety effectively and efficiently cannot be over emphasised. We cannot allow the status quo to remain when statistics continue to show us a disturbing trend on our roads. The carnage on our roads is beyond comprehension. Since the beginning of this year to October, 532 people were killed in 391 road crashes in Limpopo. From the beginning of 26 December, people (10 drivers, 12 passengers, three pedestrians and one cyclist) have been killed in 16 fatal crashes.
Nineteen (19) of these were killed during this past weekend. The untold misery and heartache for the families of these people who were killed on our roads is one part of the story. Thousands of people who will live with disabilities and disadvantages for the rest of their lives, as a result of being injured in car accidents remains another part of the tale.
We cannot continue on this path in which our citizens, the greatest asset we have as a country, are dying on our roads on daily basis. That is why the department is working very hard to deal with the root causes of road accidents in the province. The launch of this Arrive Alive campaign is part of those efforts. We have learned very important lessons from our previous campaigns. We have reacted speedily and decisively in making the necessary changes to our strategy to ensure that we respond appropriately to the challenge of road safety.
The Arrive Alive plan we are unveiling here today is a result of a comprehensive planning process aimed at ensuring that we respond dynamically to the carnage on our roads. The plan is being executed in partnership with the SAPS.
As part of this partnership, our traffic officers together with the SAPS will embark on a joint law enforcement parade with correctional officers and members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) on Monday, 14 December 2009.
The parade will proceed from the heart of Polokwane to Seshego stadium, where the main event will be held. We invite all our people to join us. This event will be graced by our Premier Cassel Mathale and will showcase a new spirit of cooperation between all our law enforcement agencies to deal with all forms of crime.
Programme director, we firmly believe that the big red light which is flashing its warning now can be turned off. We do not believe that the challenges we face are impossible to tackle. Limpopo’s registered vehicles are estimated at 473 000. Over and above this, Limpopo is going to experience a huge influx of vehicles going to neighbouring countries, migrant workers returning home as well as members of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC). We also know from the Electronic National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS) system that we have a huge number of vehicles (buses, minibuses and trucks) that failed to be submitted for annual roadworthy tests or on change of ownership. And we also have a significant number of vehicles that have failed to renew the vehicle licenses within the timeframe allowed. 37 000 vehicles in Limpopo are affected by this non-compliance.
Limpopo also has about 17 000 expired professional driving permits, which means that a significant number of bus, taxi and trucks are driving on our roads with expired documents. Last year, sedans accounted for 638 fatal crashes, bakkies 362, combined minibus and minibus taxis 139 and trucks 124. The flooding of our province with huge traffic volumes during the festive will pose huge challenges.
These include:
* Heavy passenger vehicles, which lead to congestion and delays at toll plazas and border gates
* Overloading of public passenger transport
* Pedestrians jaywalking
* Breakdown of trailers along the N1
* Drunken driving and over speeding and
* Reckless and negligent driving.
During December last year, our province experienced 171 fatalities; 56 drivers, 77 passengers and 38 pedestrians. Approximately 808 people were injured. A total of 73 percent of all fatal crashes and injuries occurred between 12h00 and 24h00 (Thursday to Monday).
The main contributory factors included the following:
* speeding
* vehicles that are not roadworthy
* following distance
* pedestrians
* driver fatigue
* stray animals and
* unsafe overtaking.
For this festive season, the department has come up with an innovative Arrive Alive plan that will ensure that we reduce the unacceptable number of road crashes and resultant fatalities in our province. The main objective of the plan is to reduce fatal accidents by five percent this festive season, compared to the same period the previous year. This will save hundreds of lives and millions of rands in accident costs.
Special focus on our planning has been placed around school holidays, Christmas, and when schools re-open in January next year. During the course of this month, we will also showcase three state of the art law enforcement vehicles to the media and members of the public. These vehicles are fitted with an automated number plate recognition system that is able to detect and release particulars of offences and outstanding fines committed by the targeted vehicle. The system is linked to the eNaTIS and can reveal all other vehicles which are registered in the name of the owner of the vehicle scanned.
It can further detect all the outstanding fines of other vehicles registered in the name of the owner of the scanned vehicle. This will assist us to deal with the more than 200 000 outstanding warrants of arrest for traffic violations in the province. The current manual system being used by the department is unable to deal with this challenge hence the high number of outstanding warrants of arrests. Members of the media and other stakeholders will have an opportunity to see this new vehicle and observe how it works when we unveil it during this month.
Programme director, nothing can be more important to us than the safety of our people. That is why we came up with a new plan for this festive season. The plan will focus on hazardous locations and shift deployment will be based on critical days and times when more crashes are likely to occur. Our objective is to mobilise the full might of our law enforcement personnel and other stakeholders to deal with the carnage on our roads. Approximately 944 traffic officers and 41 road safety officials will be deployed throughout the province during this period to intensify law enforcement and road safety promotion campaign aimed at improving road users’ behaviour.
During weekends, the department will intensify visibility and will focus on the major offences that contribute to the high number of fatal crashes, that is: drunken driving, speeding and reckless and negligent driving. These efforts will be supported by an unprecedented publicity campaign in the print and electronic media, including three South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio stations, Capricorn FM and Jacaranda FM. The department will also stage a total of 78 road side promotions, including five high profile road shows.
During these road side promotions we will distribute thousands of information pamphlets to inform our people about road safety issues. On this core, I would like to thank Anglo Platinum for contributing additional road safety material in support of our programme. As a department, we value the contribution of all our stakeholders. I would also like to direct our thanks and appreciation to honourable members of the Portfolio Committee on Transport and the provincial leadership of Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) for coming out in support of the Arrive Alive campaign.
COSATU has pledged to deploy its leadership and other union members to work alongside our traffic police officers and members of SAPS as part of the festive season Arrive Alive campaign. To them we say thank you. We hope their participation will inspire other organisations to join us as well. We know, as well as you do, that the challenge of road safety cannot be met head on without the support and cooperation of all our stakeholders. We encourage all our stakeholders, including the taxi and bus industry, to take part in our efforts in a meaningful way.
As government, we are acutely aware that there are many people in Limpopo who are ready to work with our traffic officials to ensure safety on our roads. We will need your support to ensure the success of the Arrive Alive campaign. Road traffic is a national crisis that we must work on 24 hours a day, every day of the week, to bring it under control. Today, we are reinforcing this message, because by launching this Arrive Alive campaign we are finally giving teeth to all our warnings about road safety. During this festive season we will focus on five critical offences: vehicle fitness, overloading, speed, drunken driving and driver fitness.
Visible policing
In order to ensure good results, we will deploy 418 marked and unmarked traffic police and road safety vehicles on 26 identified critical roads daily. The visible policing effort will focus on moving violations, that is: reckless and negligent driving.
Road blocks
High-impact joint road blocks with the South African Police Service will be carried out during the festive season. Approximately 63 roadblocks will be staged in December and 54 in January (Monday to Friday). The focus areas will include drunken driving, vehicle and driver fitness and passenger overloading.
Roving speed checks
On the law enforcement front, the department will deploy 10 speed units on the N1 every day during the festive season until early January 2010. An additional 17 speed units will also be deployed in all districts. The focus areas will include speeding, driver’s licenses and drunk driving.
Border control
We will also conduct daily joint special operations with SAPS at Beit Bridge and Groblersbrug border posts. The operation will start from tomorrow, 11 December to 15 January, focusing on traffic congestion, overloading and transport related crime.
Information centre
In order to ensure that members of the public have access to up to date information, we have decided to set up a dedicated information centre that will ensure the smooth transmission of traffic information during the festive season. The information centre will be based at our head office in Polokwane and will transmit real time information to the media so that they can fulfil their mandate to inform the public. More details about the information centre will be released in due course.
Conclusion
With thousands of fatalities annually there is no question that road safety is a national concern that needs immediate and bold action. We have designed our plan in order to tackle the challenges head on. However, it is important to reiterate that we cannot do this alone. We need all our stakeholders to partner with us on this very important journey.
We need to move with the necessary pace and determination, but in a carefully planned and structured way. Road safety touches all of us. It is for all of us. If we can go away from here determined to build the partnerships that we need and draw many thousands of new people into what we are convinced is a winnable battle, we will truly find ourselves embarked on the road to safety.
I thank you and please arrive alive.
Issued by: Department of Roads and Transport, Limpopo Provincial Government
10 December 2009
Source: Department of Roads and Transport, Limpopo Provincial Government
(http://www.ldrt.gov.za/)
