By Barry Bateman
The most important method of tackling road deaths is to construct physical means of slowing traffic, according to an Indian traffic academic.
Professor Dinesh Mohan, co-ordinator of the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, told delegates at the 27th annual South African Transport Conference that changing driver attitude would have little effect on road deaths.
"You cannot change someone's attitude without changing the structure of the road.
"The most important means of reducing road deaths is to design roads to ensure the safety of people using non-motorised means of transport. Vehicle speed must be controlled by road design," he said.
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However, Semira Mohammed, of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research, said in her paper presented at the conference that success in traffic enforcement was dependent on the ability to create a meaningful detection threat to road users.
She said that to achieve this, the primary focus should be on increasing surveillance levels to ensure that the perceived risk of apprehension was high.
"Once this has been achieved, increasing penalty severity and quick and efficient administration of punishment can further enhance the deterrent effect and ultimately contribute to alleviating the road safety crisis," she said.
Mohammed said South Africa had a population of about 47-million people and according to figures from November 2007, a vehicle population of nine-million.
Of those, about 5,1-million were cars, 200 000 minibus taxis, 40 000 buses and 300 000 trucks and heavy vehicles.
"More than 18 000 people died, around 7 000 people were permanently disabled and 40 000 seriously injured on South African roads annually.
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