Local roads claim 1551 lives this Christmas
On Tuesday, 11 January 2010, transport minister Sbu Ndebele announced the country’s latest road death statistics. In just over one month 1, 551 people succumbed to motor vehicle accidents countrywide. The statistics cover a period beginning 1 December 2010 and ending on 8 January this year. “We don’t talk about deaths,” said Ndebele, “we talk about road carnage!” And he warned motorists that the 1, 147 per month average road death toll meant they should be asking when rather than if their turn was coming... A similar number of deaths (1, 582) were recorded over the 2009 festive season.
South Africa’s traffic authorities have struggled for years to reduce road deaths over the festive season, with limited success. The unfortunate truth is we average 1, 147 road accident deaths each month (2009 statistics) – way in excess of the 20 per month and 120 per month recorded in Australia and New Zealand respectively. Adjusting for our respective populations – there are roughly 49 million people in South Africa, 21 million in Australia and 4.5 million in New Zealand – we dominate the road accident deaths per 100 000 citizens per annum by quite some margin. We’re miles in the lead with 28.08 deaths per 100 000 citizens per annum compared to Australia (6.85) and New Zealand (5.33). I’m working on very rough numbers here; but the point is clearly illustrated!
This carnage has a massive price tag
The loss of a loved one cannot be measured in rand and cents, but the cost to the economy can. According to Road Traffic Management’s Road Traffic Accident Report 2009 there were 10, 857 fatal crashes and 13, 767 accident-related deaths two years back. A total of 4 066 drivers, 5 023 passengers and 4 678 pedestrians lost their lives. The cost of each fatal accident averages just under R1.233 million for an unbelievable R13.385 billion through 2009. And Automobile Association spokesperson, Gary Ronald, estimates that the latest festive season accidents will cost the country approximately R1.5 billion!
These numbers mean a great deal to stakeholders in the financial services space. Virtually every road accident, whether fatal or not, has an impact on both the short and long-term insurance industry. Long-term insurers have to assess and pay an increasing number of death and disability claims – while short-term insurers carry the cost of vehicle towing, storage, replacement and repair. It’s certainly in everyone’s benefit to do everything possible to reduce these alarming statistics.
Playing the blame game isn’t going to help
One of the great things about Internet news portals is the opportunity they offer readers to share their views. While researching today’s newsletter I came across dozens of user responses to the latest road death statistics. And they prove telling. Instead of accepting responsibility for the situation we’re all about explaining it away – or shifting the blame elsewhere.
We blame government for the poor state of the country’s roads and their inability to enforce existing traffic laws properly. And in the same breath we find dozens of reasons why certain road users are above the law. We believe speed limits are conditional upon the vehicle we drive or our assumed skill in handling our vehicles. We argue – for instance – that a 1967 VW Beetle travelling 100kph is more dangerous than a Ferrari doing 230kph. In other words – fine the Beetle driver and let the Ferrari driver walk. We reckon driving faster gets us to our destination sooner, which in turn means anyone driving at the speed limit will succumb to tiredness and be more likely to crash.
We say government should jump on “red light jumpers” rather than speeding, pull over un-roadworthy vehicles rather than new vehicles without number plates and ignore yielding at stop signs without question… We’re all about selective law enforcement with our primary requirement: “Don’t stop me – there’s someone out there doing something worse…” We even go so far as to question the road death statistics, pointing out that 40% of deaths are among pedestrians and therefore no fault of the motorists at all. And of course we flip out when government ministers get treated with “kid gloves” for driving 235kph. As one reader comments the Free State MEC for sport would have been languishing in jail – minus his drivers license and car – had he pulled a similar stunt in Australia...
If we hope to stem the tide of death on the country’s roads we’ll have to work on changing attitudes. Until then the 1, 147 per month average will probably escalate in line with the increase in road users each year.
Editor’s thoughts: The rules of the road are quite clear and anyone who has written their learners and taken their drivers knows what they are. But the minute we get behind the wheel our attitudes shift from “law abiding” to “he did it so we’ll do it to”. Do you have what it takes to change your attitude when it comes to obeying traffic law? Add your comment below, or send it to [email protected]
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