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The festive season should be a time of joy, of celebrating life with friends and family, of looking forward with big smiles at the opportunities offered by the coming year. Tragedy, however, is the 'gift' thousands of South Africans receive over the December holidays, delivered by angels of death bearing news of loved-ones killed in road accidents. FleetWatch has for a number of years reported on road accidents involving trucks over the festive season, using statistics supplied by the Department of Transport (DoT). While the figures are down from 2004, the statistics make for morbid reading, with an overwhelming question hanging in the air: "What were they thinking?" asks Paul Collings.

The pages of statistics from the DoT list 'contributory factors' behind the accidents which, while not explaining fully why the collisions occurred, do give the inquiring mind a 'sketch' to work with. Consider these accident synopses from the report:

"Head-on. An LDV did not stop at intersection, turned in front of oncoming traffic and collided head-on with a truck which pushed the LDV backwards, colliding with a sedan."

And this one: "Person fell off a vehicle. The truck was reversing at a loading zone when one passenger fell off the truck and the truck went over him."

You don't need to be a specialist accident investigator to understand that in both of these cases, negligence played the leading part in bringing about the deaths of two passengers. In the first case, it was the driver of the LDV who was at fault, jumping an intersection. We can be sure a case of culpable homicide has been opened against him. The report does not state which vehicle the deceased was in.
 

The second case illustrates a common cause of death, passengers falling off the back of trucks. It boggles the mind that a vehicle moving in reverse killed this particular passenger. The statistics show that seven people were killed over December, falling off the back of a truck. When will that law, preventing passengers from riding in the load body of a commercial vehicle, be implemented and enforced? This year? Yeah right!

According to the DoT statistics, trucks were involved in 103 accidents during December 2005, which resulted in 122 deaths. December 2004 saw truck accidents numbering 108, with the death toll at 166. The numbers have improved but remain horrific. Once again, it was passengers who topped the death list at 45, drivers at 39 and pedestrians at 36. The worst example of just how vulnerable passengers are occurred in the Eastern Cape between Middleburg and Cradock. A truck overtook a bakkie towing a caravan, which began to swerve, causing a 'sideswipe'. The bakkie ended up under the truck and the bakkie driver and five passengers were killed.

This case is not so easy to 'decipher' using the scant detail supplied by the DoT but the obvious question is: why did the bakkie and caravan start to swerve? Did the driver skrik when the truck pulled alongside? Did the sudden change in wind resistance play a role? Did the truck nudge the caravan? Was speed a factor?

One thing that is clear in the report is that, in the majority of cases, trucks were not at fault. It was negligent passenger vehicle drivers and pedestrians who 'crossed the line of sanity', who diced with death and lost. Trucks are big and slow and hard to miss. That's why cars hit them.

Of the 103 accidents, 19 were head/tail collisions (cars driving into the back of trucks), mostly at night. "Aha," we hear you say, "No tail lights on the truck! Poor conspicuity markings!" That may perhaps be the case. But more likely, it's driver fatigue or intoxication at fault. There were seventeen head-on collisions, all of which could have been avoided.

The incidents where vehicle component failure caused the accident are also relatively low. In four cases, the driver 'lost control' of the truck with no specified reason. One case of tyre blowout is cited and one of brake failure. This suggests that trucks are more roadworthy than before, that there are fewer cases of driver fatigue perhaps. 

But the statistics speak for themselves: For all its efforts, the Arrive Alive message is not getting through to people. Pedestrians and motorists are as negligent as ever. For those on foot and behind the wheel of passenger vehicles we say: 'WAKE UP! SLOW DOWN! PAY EXTRA ATTENTION TO THE ROAD AND WHAT"S HAPPENING ALONGSIDE IT!" The March edition of FleetWatch will run a full analysis of these statistics.