THE DEFINITIVE TRUCKING SITE

October 2008

The deal is quite simple. N3TC (N3 Toll Concessions), the company which manages and operates the N3 Toll Road between Heidelberg and Cedara, has chosen Pedestrian Safety as its focus area for October’s Transport Month and in line with this, is running a Pedestrian Safety Poster Competition for school children along the route. 

The aim of the competition, which will be promoted to some 32 schools along the route, is to promote road safety and pedestrian safety in particular. Con Roux, N3TC’s commercial manager, says the N3TC has conducted a number of road safety projects of one kind or another in these schools and N3TC Pedestrian Safety Poster Competition is a follow on from these. 

The competition  has been endorsed by the Road Safety Foundation and will be aligned with the THINK! Kidz Foundation to ensure continuity in messaging. Prize money totalling R22 000 will be awarded to the kids with individual prizes ranging from R100 to R250 - as well as cash donations to each prize winner’s school. 

Bringing in the truckers
Flowing from all of this, Roux approached FleetWatch with the idea to get the wider trucking industry involved in the competition and from this, the concept of the Truck Driver-Artist Pedestrian Road Safety Poster Competition was born. 

N3TC and FleetWatch are calling on all fleet operators and transport managers to pass this article onto their drivers and encourage them to get out their pencils, easels, oil paints and pastels and start creating. You might know one of your drivers who has a particular talent for art. Please get him or her involved in this project. 

With the theme of the competition being pedestrian safety, the poster should depict how they, the truck drivers, see pedestrians and what they feel pedestrians and truck drivers together should be doing to promote pedestrian safety. 

Four fatalities per month 
Pedestrian accidents and resulting fatalities occur on the N3 Toll Route at a rate of approximately four per month. These fatalities could be avoided if local community members truly understood the dangers of crossing a national route and the high speeds of the vehicles travelling on this road. 

The N3 Toll Route poses even more dangers with the high volumes of heavy vehicles making use of it. It is not only common to see pedestrians crossing the road but it is equally common to see trucks stopping along the route (which is illegal) and picking up pedestrians/passengers and dropping them off again at another point on the N3. While economic pressures are most often the reason for pedestrian activity and hitchhiking, lives are being compromised as a result. 

N3TC believes that through continuous education efforts and consistent messaging, we will be able to make a difference and particularly in the lives of those who hold the future of South Africa in their hands – the school children. 

On this point, while N3TC is promoting the competition to schools along the N3 Toll Route, the truck driver component of the competition is open to all truck drivers throughout the country – not only to those who drive the N3. 

According to www.ArriveAlive.co.za , 40% of people killed on South Africa’s roads are pedestrians. Drivers are urged to avoid pedestrians but pedestrians are probably the least regulated or controlled road users in the country - and they are the most difficult to  educate. And this is a national rather than a local problem. 

So c’mon truckers! Let’s find those budding artists among our truck driver ranks and get them exploring their talent while at the same time contributing to road safety on the roads they travel daily.