Letters to the editor

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March 2006

A call for Government to appoint a Minister or Deputy Minister of Road Traffic Safety whose task it will be to focus on reversing the carnage on our roads and to bring about an improvement of our road usage conditions by taking accountability for achieving a targeted improvement of road safety in South Africa has been made by the South African Guild of Motoring Journalists (SAGMJ). It is a call which FleetWatch fully endorses and supports writes Patrick O’Leary.
 

Robin Emslie promises full support of the members of the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists behind a national road safety programme.

 

he call was made in a letter sent last year by the Committee of Active Road Safety (CARS) – a subsidiary committee of the SAGMJ - to President Thabo Mbeki and subsequently to the Minister of Transport Jeff Radebe.
Giving a short feedback report at the recent Committee of Active Road Safety (CARS) Evert Van Niekerk Road Safety Achievement of the Year awards function, Robin Emslie, deputy chairman of CARS and past president of the SAGMJ, said that CARS had received a good response from the Department of Transport – especially to the Five Point plan as laid out in the letter - with meetings having taken place between CARS and the DoT. "We expect our talks to continue with some positive outcomes," he said.

The Five Point Plan to which he refers was spelt out in the original letter where CARS put forward five crucial areas which need to be addressed in order to create a dramatic turnaround in the road accident and fatality rate. They are:

  • Road users’ abuse of alcohol and drugs;

  • The low usage of seatbelts;

  • The high incidence of unroadworthy vehicles;

  • The high rate of deaths and injuries among pedestrians; and

  • The lack of accountability for road safety.

There is enough hard evidence around to give backing to the first four points (see FleetWatch February 2006 edition for an example of unroadworthy trucks using our roads). The point of accountability, however, is one which needs highlighting.

In this respect, CARS is quite correct is stating that one organisation or entity must be made fully accountable for improving the dismal and dangerous road usage situation in South Africa. "Practically this will be achieved by the appointment of a Minister of Road Traffic Safety committed to the reduction of the carnage and the cost of our poor road usage conditions on a national basis," is what CARS stated.

CARS is also quite correct in emphasing a national rather than provincial accountability for, as the situation stands, "much of our excellent national legislation is not achieving implementation through the provincial structures," says Emslie.

"Road safety measures must be implemented by Government on a national basis as is the case with the application of crime prevention and public protection through the SAPS. To be successful, countrywide visible, vigorous and effective enforcement of legislation must be applied," is the point made by CARS. FleetWatch wholeheartedly agrees with this sentiment.

Finally, the letter made on a call on Government to:

  •  Make an unwavering commitment to the immediate improvement of road safety throughout the country.

  • To declare its intentions, its timing and its targeting to achieve an acceptable situation, and then adhere strictly to the laid down time frame.

  • This done, to accurately define and declare the accountability for performance together with the consequences which will be applied for non-performance.

FleetWatch is pleased that the DoT has responded to CARS. However, in our opinion, this falls far short of ideal. The letter was addressed to President Thabo Mbeki and to this date, no direct response has been received from the President. In our opinion, that is just not good enough, especially given that estimates of deaths on our roads each year vary from 10 000 through 18 000 to 25 000 with a cost to the economy of around R35-billion per year. (See Editor’s Comment in this issue).