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Fleetwatch Publisher Patrick O’Leary delivers a scathing address the annual CARS ‘State of Road Safety’ conference.

Every road user needs to go to greater lengths to help reduce the chance of accidents occurring. The Committee for Active Road Safety (CARS) is a public/private partnership striving to make our roads safer by getting government and the general public to put processes in place that will help reduce our horrific road fatality rate. FleetWatch editor Patrick O'Leary addressed the audience at a recent CARS meeting, emphatically pinpointing areas of weakness within the broader road safety management environment.

he abuse of alcohol & drugs by road users, the low usage of seatbelts, the high incidence of unroadworthy vehicles, the high rate of deaths and injuries amongst pedestrians, and the lack of accountability for road safety are the five crucial areas which need to be addressed in order to create a dramatic turnaround in the road accident and fatality rate," says O'Leary. It is always easy to lay blame, O'Leary continues, and our poor road safety record is no exception. "Central Government, the traffic authorities and road users are all to blame. The sooner we all realise this and together start devising and implementing actions to improve the situation, we are just heading for a course of more collisions."

The fact that we do not have a centrally controlled road safety authority with the power to implement road safety measures in a co-ordinated fashion on a national level is a major stumbling block, adds O'Leary. "At the moment each province has its own agenda setting its own priorities and doing its own thing in all respects. This situation does nothing to engender understanding or respect amongst road users and many individual efforts tend to become counter-productive to what should be a national objective."

A central authority, preferably a ministry of Road Safety, O'Leary says, "would not only elevate and lend momentum to the promotion of safety programmes, but most importantly, will provide the country with a person and a department with accountability for the progressing of road safety. Also, politicising road safety would be a huge step forward for South Africa."

As far as the public is concerned, we all have to adopt a new mindset and do as much as we possibly can to drive safer, concludes O'Leary...and if not, face legal prosecutions equal to those in First World countries.

Safety Products Wheel safety - Truck wheels and tyres not only burst, they come off with alarming frequency, while the truck is moving! Wheel thieves can be stopped in their tracks with locking wheel nuts such as these from Grip-Tech. Nitrogen-inflated tyres run cooler and are less likely to perish than those filled with air and a service such as offered by Nitralife costs less than one new truck tyre per month.

Tacho Monitoring - Monitoring drivers with tacho charts and Fleet Management System reports will help correct dangerous driving habits and ultimately save lives. The two tacho charts shown here are from the same truck, same driver on the same route in a timber plantation in Swaziland. According to Trucksurance Risk Services managing director, Locke Purdon, many companies fail to regularly analyse tacho chart information or FMS data, effectively missing excellent opportunities to improve overall fleet safety and efficiency. "The Trucksurance Driver Incentive Programme which includes driver training and rewards for driving excellence, certainly assists the process. An improvement in driving and the consequent reduction of accidents has the additional benefit of reducing insurance risk and this can result in lower insurance premiums," says Purdon.