Durban - Dont’t become another traffic fatality.
It’s traditionally a time for family gatherings, holidays and road trips, but traffic authorities have called for care while driving, saying crashes cost the country billions every year.
The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) said that last year (2021), there were 10 611 crashes across the country, resulting in 5 544 deaths. The cost to the country’s economy was R188 billion.
RTMC’s spokesman Simon Zwane said: “To attend each crash where there was a fatality cost the government R7.1 million in 2021.”
Zwane said every crash in which someone died was costly because of the need for ambulances, tow trucks, road closures, traffic control, time needed to clean and clear the road, mortuary costs, absenteeism from work and late arrivals because of the accidents.
He said it was essential that authorities maintain a high level of visibility on the road to reduce the number of incidents.
KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape were the provinces with the highest number of crashes and fatalities, said Zwane.
The build-up in traffic volumes usually starts on December 15 and then peaks again on December 23 and 24.
“People have been staggering their travel times in recent years. On the long weekend of [December] 16, we usually see a high number of crashes in built up-areas... where people are having festivities,” Zwane said.
The SA National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and the provincial government were working hard to ensure traffic on the N3 to the coast ran smoothly and safely this festive season, said Thabiso Dladla, Sanral’s eastern region project manager.
KwaZulu-Natal recently launched its Integrated Safety Month and Festive Season Enforcement Campaign to promote safety on the road and curb crime.
Sanral is finishing work at Town Hill (Peter Brown), on the N3 between Sanctuary and Link Road, to ensure holiday traffic would flow smoothly. KZN Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube assured visitors additional law enforcement officers would “be out in full force” to ensure holidaymakers have a memorable stay.
Dube-Ncube said KZN was expecting a very busy festive season and police had declared a zero-tolerance policy towards motorists who violate the rules of the road.
“Deaths on our roads have reached crisis levels. One death is one too many,” said the premier.
Sanral, National Traffic Police under RTMC, RTI and other provincial and local road authorities are working together, with many joint operations involving all spheres of government.
Dladla said that Sanral and the KZN Department of Transport were also engaging the freight and logistics industry because “our roads cannot be turned into mass grave sites and places of untimely deaths".
"The ongoing engagements involve participation in CSI initiatives, as well as prioritising law enforcement and visible policing, which ultimately results in behaviour change,” said Dladla.
Work at Town Hill is expected to be wrapped up before the holiday, with the road fully open to cope with the significant increase in traffic volumes.
According to Gavin Kelly, chief executive of the Road Freight Association, road freight operators try to ensure their “peak loads for the festive period” were all delivered before the traditional holiday season and that there would be “less” freight or delivery vehicles on the roads.
“This is more in terms of ‘long haul’ ‒ but this is always subject to market demand and retail.”
Kelly said there would be increased traffic on the major routes to holiday destinations, which would bring many frustrations and delays. Among them were road works on the Southern Corridor through to the most popular destinations.
“There will be many vehicles on the major routes as exports and imports continue. There will be delays.”
Kelly advised motorists to take their time.
“Plan trips with alternatives for stops and places where rest stops can be taken,” he said.
“There will probably be less traffic because of the financial situation many South Africans find themselves in – but then there will still be enough traffic on the major routes.”
Zwane said most crashes happened when people had already reached or neared their destination, and the most dangerous times to be driving were from 12pm to 5am, and 9pm to midnight.
Zwane said pedestrians made up 40% of people killed, followed by 27% who died while driving under the influence.
Zwane cautioned that pedestrians were often careless and crossed the road when drunk, or when not paying attention to oncoming traffic.
Other causes of fatalities included driving 120km/h in 60km/h zones, while on the freeways it was not unusual to find cars doing 180km/h to 200km/h, and it was “almost always” men, said Zwane.
“The most common excuse is that 'we were in a hurry to get to a meeting' or 'I was late’,” said Zwane.
He said one way to ensure road safety was by making it your business to know your route, especially when it was raining.
Zwane also appealed to people to travel with caution where there was water on the road, and to make sure the vehicle they were using was roadworthy.
Arrive Alive’s Johan Jonck, who became involved in road safety after his mother died in a traffic crash, said enforcement was critical to ensuring safety on the country’s roads.
He said engineering, education and environmental factors such as potholes all played a role in how safe the roads were, but 85% of it was also dependent on human factors, including whether drivers were under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or were fatigued.
He said the responsible crossing of roads by pedestrians as well as the use of seat belts for children would go a long way to making travel safer.
The Independent on Saturday