Pretoria - Bad behaviour by motorists and not poor law enforcement was the biggest cause of road deaths in the country.
“The problem is not that there is a lack of law enforcement agents on the roads; the biggest challenge is the behaviour of motorists. Society in general needs to help law enforcement agencies in this regard,” said Tshwane Metro Police Department head, Steven Ngobeni.
He said there was no formula for reducing road fatalities, and the department was going all out to reduce death on the city’s road this festive season.
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With the silly season officially kicking in on Tuesday, Ngobeni declared they would be concentrating on hotspots such as the notorious Moloto Road, which has claimed dozens of lives over years, as well as others within the capital city.
Ngobeni said the department would be shifting its focus towards the hotspots by analysing the fundamental factors specific to each area to ascertain what made that particular spot dangerous.
“We don’t have a formula for how we will be tackling the problem. Each solution is based on research and analysis and then we will be able to put together interventions,” Ngobeni said.
He was speaking to the Pretoria News during the launch of the festive season road safety operations in Wallmannsthal on the N1.
ARRESTING PEDESTRIANS
Earlier in the day, traffic officials arrested several people for walking across the highway.
The officers drove on the highway in a Tshwane metro bus and arrested those found to be crossing it. More of this operation should be expected during the festive season. In terms of the law, no person is allowed on the highway on foot.
“We have different interventions for each hotspot and will be monitoring those areas,” Ngobeni said. Apart from this monitoring, he said their biggest concern during the festive season would be to try to alter behaviour of motorists and their attitudes towards road usage.
In addition, Ngobeni also said although he was not discouraging motorists who recently acquired their licences from using the roads during this festive season, he would advise them to travel when the roads were less congested.
“Experience on the road is a major component, and lack thereof can cause carnage. We urge new licence holders to be patient befor hitting the roads. They must allow traffic to die down,” he said.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT ENCOURAGED
Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa said one of the strategies the city would be using this year was to encourage road users to migrate towards public transport. He said South Africa had one of the best road infrastructures on the continent, yet had among the highest road-related death tolls in the world. He reiterated Ngobeni’s sentiments and said what needed to be questioned was the fitness and behaviour of drivers.
“The infrastructure cannot be blamed for the deaths. We need to look at drivers’ fitness and behaviour, and that’s why we are encouraging people to use public transport,” Ramokgopa said.
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He added that the city would be working with other organs in the transport industry in an attempt to achieve a zero fatality rate this festive season.
“We are working with private ambulance services, taxi organisations and bus operators to make sure we decrease the death toll,” Ramokgopa said.
Early this year, head of the Road Traffic Management Corporation, Makhosini Msibi said: “Often you find that some of the accidents involve pedestrians. And we need to target them too,” Msibi said.
“We are going to be working with the Department of Human Settlements, because in some cases you find that people live close to a national road, or there is no pavement management where they live. This results in jaywalking.”
He said a partnership between communities and the private sector bode well for road safety.
Festive season road deaths:
December 2007: 1535
December 2008: 937
December 2009: 1050
December 2010: 1358
December 2011: 1232
December 2012: 1279
December 2013: 1184
December 2014: 1368
Pretoria News