Pretoria - Road crashes will become the fifth leading cause of fatalities worldwide by 2030, overtaking Aids, tuberculosis, trachea, bronchus and lung cancers.
Road Traffic Management Corporation head of road safety Mpho Mokhantso was quoting a World Health Organisation report at a discussion about the Road Safety Strategy for South Africa for 2016-2020 in Pretoria.
He and Tshwane Metro Police Department spokesman Senior Superintendent Isaac Mahamba said texting while driving had become more dangerous than drinking behind the wheel of a moving car.
Mokhantso said one of the overriding objectives of the strategy was to achieve a 50 percent reduction in the number of people killed and seriously injured in crashes by 2020.
The strategy, a joint operation by the government, RTMC, SA National Roads Agency Limited, the Road Accident Fund, SAPS and metro police, outlines the actions to be undertaken to improve safety on South Africa’s roads.
“It is quite clear that we need an impactful solution - and we need it fast,” Mokhantso said.
Also read: Weekend of horror on SA roads
He said that as a participant of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, South Africa endorsed the global undertaking to save up to five million lives.
The country had also pledged to contribute to the prevention of up to 50 million serious injuries by 2020, Mokhantso said.
In accordance with this commitment, the National Road Safety Strategy 2016-2030 was developed, embodying the principles of the safe systems approach.
It further gave effect to the five pillars of the UN’s guiding framework for actions to improve road safety. These are road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users and post-crash response.
Road safety management involves improving co-ordination and management while eliminating fraud and corruption within road management agencies.
Safer roads and mobility refers to identifying and addressing high-risk locations and performing regular road audits on new projects.
Safer vehicles deals with increasing vehicle safety standards and the reorganisation of the roadworthiness control of vehicles.
Safer road users is improving the behaviours of road users and involving communities in road safety education and awareness.
Post-crash response refers to the provision of post-crash trauma care and medical fitness to drive,a reduction of accident costs and funding of the Road Safety Strategy.
Get back to basics
“As part of this commitment, the government and its stakeholders developed a new, goal-based road safety strategy that embodies the principles of the ‘safe systems’ approach and gives effect to the five pillars,” said Mokhantso.
Mahamba welcomed the five pillars and emphasised that road users needed to be more cautious on the roads and return to the basics, including knowing and abiding by the road signs.
“Most crashes are caused by human error,” he said. “Motorists need to be vigilant and follow the rules,”
Mahamba highlighted texting while driving and constantly looking at GPS devices as causing the most crashes.
“Texting is a huge distraction. Rather listen to your GPS voice guide on the car speakers instead of constantly looking at the screen of the device,” he said.
South Africa previously experienced reduced road traffic fatalities, with the figures decreasing steadily from 15 419 in 2006 to 12 702 in 2014.
However, reductions in road deaths had not been at the rate required for the country to realistically meet the international goals, according to Mokhantso.
Earlier in 2016, transport minister Dipuo Peters announced 1 253 crashes and 1 755 deaths for the festive season, up by 11 percent on the previous period.
But the Easter weekend saw a 46 percent reduction which Peters attributed to high visibility of traffic authorities and a willingness by motorists to obey road rules.
During the long weekend of April 28 to May 2, there were 179 car crashes, which left 237 people dead.
Pretoria News