Donald Grant
Arising from yet another bloody December period on Western Cape roads, an initial assessment has pointed to some alarming new trends and, unfortunately, some all-too-common old ones.
On one hand, we have seen a very concerning spike in our passenger fatality rates, which is indicative of the rise in the number of head-on collisions made fatal by a serious lack of seat-belt compliance.
On the other hand, the usual causes have been a major contributing factor in many of these fatal collisions – these being speed, fatigue and alcohol consumption, all factors which impede judgement while driving. In the Western Cape alone, passenger deaths have risen by 40 percent this past December, compared to the number for the same period in 2014 (from 35 deaths in 2014 to 49 in 2015).
The bloodbath that has become the situation on our roads is ultimately a result of the ever growing culture of lawlessness in South Africa, which manifests itself in the flouting of road traffic laws by road users in general.
With many traffic violations comes the potential for increased danger, incident and loss of life; each speed restriction violated, each solid barrier line crossed illegally, each traffic warning ignored, each vehicle occupant not properly restrained, and each decision taken to get behind the steering wheel of a car after consuming alcohol all have the potential to produce a deadly outcome.
So, how then do we effectively address the problem and reduce the threat? These are the questions that we as provincial traffic authorities grapple with daily when devising plans and interventions to respond to the threats caused by errant road-user behaviour.
The holistic plans that we devise, as with all successful road safety interventions across the world, comprise not only traffic law enforcement, but education, engineering and constant evaluation too.
In recent years, these efforts have been modified to emulate Australia’s Safe Principles approach to road safety (safe speeds, safe people, safe roads, safe vehicles), which has been credited with their known successes in reducing the carnage on their roads.
In South Africa, however, the “safe people” element of the approach is precisely what we struggle with the most. Changing errant road-user behaviour in this country has proven to be a real obstacle, exacerbated largely by the absence of tough, biting consequences for traffic law violators that serve as a clear deterrent for the rest of the populace.
In Australia, where traffic violations are considered a serious offence, tough punishments and jail time for speedsters and drink drivers who kill others are the order of the day. Michael Craig Burvill, a drunk driver, was just last year convicted for the killing of a 56-year-old man, and was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison and disqualified from driving four years after his release, on top of a $1 000 fine.
Australia has also introduced an alcohol ignition interlock breath test devise, which is connected to the ignition of a vehicle to stop it from starting if the driver has been drinking alcohol.
Drivers are subject to this punishment if they are convicted of drunk driving-related offences. In South Africa, convictions carry far more lax consequences: Johan Crous, convicted of culpable homicide after a drunk-driving incident resulted in the death of Lauren Devine in 2008, was sentenced to three years of correctional supervision and house arrest.
Too entrenched is the belief amongst road users that breaking traffic laws in South Africa is unlikely to be followed by a punishment even vaguely proportional to the threat to life caused by the violation in the first place, let alone a punishment that will deter the offender and any other would-be offender from committing similar offences.
Too common are stories of reckless and irresponsible drivers caught by traffic law enforcement officers, either falling through the glaring cracks of South Africa’s criminal justice system, or simply emerging on the other side with nothing more than the proverbial slap on the wrist.
Not often enough do we hear of killer drunk drivers and speedsters being placed behind bars for threatening the lives of others with their flagrant disregard of the law.
Just the other day, I read in horror the story of a 42-year-old man arrested for drunk driving and reckless and negligent driving in Lwandle. The man was arrested after he had allegedly knocked down a pedestrian, came out of his vehicle to remove the victim from the road, re-entered his vehicle and driven off again, essentially leaving the victim for dead. He was later apprehended with the help of community members who had reported him to the police.
Even more alarming is that it later transpired, during the investigation, that the man was also wanted in Khayelitsha, Somerset West, Lingelethu West, Harare, and Strand for other drunk-driving incidents.
This speaks to his, and I am sure many others’, impunity in the face of the law and complete disregard for the lives of others, as his crimes have consistently not been met with the consequences that his actions deserve. He has previous drunk-driving convictions, but clearly is still allowed to be behind the steering wheel of a car, and potentially inflict his brand of tyranny on others.
Sadly, he is not the only one. There are many others like him. How much longer must South Africa’s lax brand of justice continue to foster lawlessness and reckless, and irresponsible road use? Only the criminal justice system has the power to send a strong message to all road users by treating such crimes with the seriousness that they deserve, and imposing consequences commensurate with that seriousness.
l Grant is Western Cape MEC of Transport and Public Works