SAIA Bulletin : National Road Traffic Amendment Bill

The Department of Transport published Notice 575 of 2012 as per Government Gazette No. 35528 which constitutes the National Road Traffic Amendment Bill (2012) and the Memorandum on the objects of the Bill and which are open for public comments to the Depa

The Bill proposes to give effect in the short term to some of the principal strategies contained in the Road Safe Strategy 2001-2005. The Bill implements the strategic interventions highlighted in the Road Safety Strategy. Furthermore it deals with the regulation of driving schools and instructors in South Africa with the aim of regulating the industry and it prohibits the operation of unregistered and ungraded driving schools. The Bill amends certain definitions and also provides some new definitions.

The Bill provides for a wide range of provisions which inter alia includes the following:

* Traffic officers, driving schools, driving instructors, driving licenses, exemption for disaster management personnel from the speed and road sign provisions, incident management etc.
* Lowering the blood alcohol limits from 0.05 gram per 100 ml to 0.02 grams and the breath alcohol limits from 0.24 mg per 1000 ml to 0.10.
* Professional drivers will have a 0.00 limit once the amendments are approved.

Only a few of the provisions are mentioned above and as there are far reaching changes the full gazette should be studied for a complete list of the amendments.

The SAIA will be submitting comments on behalf of our members by the due date