Opinion: Road safety needs a serious overhaul

By Ashref Ismail

As I write this piece, news of a third major fatal crash claiming multiple lives on South African roads are just filtering through.

In one of the crashes, 27 people were killed needlessly and senselessly in Limpopo. The victims are breadwinners, community leaders, young and old, mostly the poorest of the poor with a dream for a better world.

We lose an average of 45 people daily on our roads.

The cost to the economy is in the region of R 306 billion per annum.

The Road Accident fund spends in excess of R 15 billion rand per annum paying victims of road crashes. The cost of the loss of human lives is incalculable, not mention the trauma of having to deal with people who are severely and permanently disabled.

Let all of the above sink in for a moment, will you…?

So now let’s look for solutions, because as is common at this time of the year lazy, ineffective and inept politicians will be wheeled out from their cosy, air-conditioned offices to don reflective jackets and play traffic cop for the TV cameras.

You can almost mouth their predictable sound-bites: “We will leave no stone un-turned to arrest criminals who are playing with the lives of innocent road users”, “traffic officers have been instructed to show no mercy to reckless and negligent drivers” and my all-time favourite: “enough is enough, one life lost is one life too many!”

Oh please, what a yawn!

People are so used to “Festive Season Road Safety Launches and Lunches” where crowds are bused in to fill venues on the promise of a free lunch and, maybe, a t-shirt.

A prepared speech delivered by an indifferent politician who is clueless and hapless in the face of on-going fatalities is the norm rather than the exception.

Sadly, our media are non-the-wiser, falling for the politicians’ nonsensical ploys time and again; failing to ask searching questions, questions that demand innovative, smart policing that bring quick wins and dramatic reductions.

So, on and on it goes. It just needs one clever journalist to ask Mr Politician: “Every year you promise the same old, same old, blah, blah, blah…but more people keep dying.

What are you going to do differently this year?’

Then monitor the interventions and evaluate by asking probing questions on the weaknesses of the campaign.

Don’t just accept stats, facts and lies. Be scientific on the planning, implementation and evaluation.

Don’t accept excuses and explanations either.

There are far too many dead-wood officers just stealing oxygen. Re-deploy them out of operations and bring in qualified, committed and passionate individuals who are willing to add value by rolling out proven road safety programmes that are impactful.

We need humble technocrats who are willing to import international best practices and appreciate that road safety requires a multi-sectoral approach

There are many organizations who would like to assist but we need a caring government that is willing to listen and implement.

For now, all we see is corrupt officials at testing stations, licensing centres, roadside check-points, weighbridges and roadblocks. While it takes two to dance the bribery tune, know that eventually illegal behaviour ends up in the crashes that we witness daily on our roads. Fraudulent behaviour needs to be dealt with decisively and multi-enforcement agencies must work in tandem to name, shame and bring to book guilty culprits.

The reckless, negligent and roguish behaviour of the taxi industry must be brought to heel as soon as possible. Nothing demonstrates this government’s weakness and failures more than the total lack of political will to act against this lawless group of road users.

Deal mercilessly with drunken drivers and pedestrians and watch how the offence and crash rates drop. It takes balls, but it can be done. It MUST be done! We need a society that is voluntary compliant, but the first step in that direction is enforcement that is swift, fair and vigorous. So, until that happens, we are going to have to be pro-active and defend ourselves against rotten law enforcement officers and bad road users.

Buckle up and enjoy the holidays!

Ends.