The Department of Transport (DOT) claims that fatal motor vehicle accidents cost the country R1.095 billion over the most recent festive season. This staggering number is based on the estimated cost of R800, 000 per fatal accident - and multiplied by the
The frightening truth is that the R800, 000 per fatal accident excludes the wider cost to the economy caused by loss of life. It also ignores the loss in productive time due to resulting traffic jams. And no amount of money can compensate for the emotional suffering of the families of the victims.
While we 'gift' our country a R1 billion price tag each festive season we should not forget that South African motorists make an annuity contribution of this magnitude every month. The total cost to the country (when all economic impacts are considered) is in the region of R43 billion per year!
Holiday statistics obsession
Every year millions of South Africans journey to their holiday destination of choice. This has prompted a DOT initiative known as Arrive Alive which spends millions of rand on awareness campaigns over the December and April holiday seasons.
The South African public watches with macabre interest as the Arrive Alive campaign body-count plays out on television and in the press. How many will die this holiday? How many in Gauteng? How many in the Eastern Cape?
The problem is that South Africa has one of the highest rates of road deaths per 10, 000 road users anywhere in the world. On average, 1,134 drivers and pedestrians perish on the countys roads every month. So the 1,645 road fatalities over the December holiday period are nothing out of the ordinary. A similar number of road users die in February, August and September each year.
Arrive alive should be a year round focus and should be doing much more to prevent deaths rather than simply monitoring accident fatality rates and reporting back on them.
Why the DOT has got it wrong
The DOT recently launched a comprehensive strategy document called The Road Safety Strategy. They claim this document will identify and tackle the underlying causes of vehicle accidents and related fatalities on our roads.
But is there a point to this exercise? There are so many clearly identifiable problems that government would do better to deliver a decree outlining how two or three of the most prominent causes of road fatalities will be stamped out. Here follows a common sense approach to solving the problem.
The first step is to realise that every cent spent minimising deaths on the roads today is a cent saved in cleaning up the mess later. So you spend the money now to save lives - or you spend it later to bury corpses - a nice zero sum game! The second step is to acknowledge that two-thirds of road accident fatalities involve vehicle occupants, and the balance pedestrians.
This done, we can launch an outright attack on some of the major causes of motor vehicle accidents (and by association road fatalities). These include the attitudes and behaviours of drivers and pedestrians, vehicle roadworthiness and the state of our countrys roads. There is not enough space in this forum to go into the specific strategies required to address each of these areas but implementing one or two proposals under each of these heading will definitely reduce road fatalities.
Public should account for their actions
Government aside, it remains for individual road users (including pedestrians and cyclists) to adopt responsible practices for their own safety, and the safety of all other road users. Drivers making use of the countrys road infrastructure should take whatever measures they can to minimise the likelihood of motor vehicle accidents.
This means paying close attention to the laws of the road, making sure that vehicles are roadworthy and maintaining respectful attitudes to all other road users. While the blatant disregard for the law shown by many drivers makes this difficult to achieve, each driver who adopts a positive attitude to his own driving will assist in bringing normality to our roads.
We face enough problems without having to negotiate a twice daily war zone during our drive to and from work.
Editor's thoughts:
Government has to make sure that the countrys roads are in working order, and that traffic officers and police properly implement traffic and vehicle regulations. How should individual road users contribute to solving the problem of road deaths? Send your solutions to gareth@fanews.co.za.