‘No change in road user behaviour’

Jan 2012 I went to PE over the New Year and again witnessed stupid motorists overtaking on solid white lines and in some cases in the face of oncoming traffic (I had to move over onto the yellow line to avoid an accident !). Of course traffic officials are seldom around when one needs them. Picture : John Rayner 073-3601710

Jan 2012 I went to PE over the New Year and again witnessed stupid motorists overtaking on solid white lines and in some cases in the face of oncoming traffic (I had to move over onto the yellow line to avoid an accident !). Of course traffic officials are seldom around when one needs them. Picture : John Rayner 073-3601710

Published Jan 17, 2012

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Preliminary road death figures have revealed a marginal decrease in deaths over the festive season.

But, there is grave concern over the number of fatalities in each accident and how to drastically reduce South Africa's road death toll of nearly 15 000 a year.

With preliminary death figures for the festive season at 1475, officials say the biggest killers are still speed, reckless and negligent driving and dangerous overtaking.

The figures, which will be finalised in February, show that deaths are down from 1704.

Adding to the government's concerns are the hundreds of thousands of unlicensed drivers using South Africa's 790 000km road network.

While the government was quick to explain some of the reasons how nearly 600 000 unlicensed motorists could be using the roads daily, it was unable to say exactly what it was going to do about it.

The transport department's festive season road safety plan had 1.5 million vehicles and drivers being checked, 526 735 fines issued, 6 084 unroadworthy vehicles impounded and 13 439 drivers arrested for speeding, reckless and negligent driving and outstanding warrants of arrest between December 1 and January 8.

Transport minister Sibusiso Ndebele, releasing the figures in Pretoria on Monday, said one of the reasons there could be so many unlicensed motorists on South Africa's roads was that a single motorist could own several cars.

Figures show that of the 9.8 million registered vehicles in SA there are only 9.2 million licensed drivers.

He said: “This is a very, very serious situation which requires urgent action.”

But, he said, the urgent action needed to ensure motorists have licences was compounded by the fact that there were only 17 000 officers to police the country's roads.

“We are going all out to remove dangerous drivers from our roads. There is a great deal of work still to be done to reduce South Africa's 40 road deaths a day.

“The key to this is the removal of reckless drivers, dangerous vehicles and to stamp out corruption.

Road Traffic Management Corporation chief executive Collins Letsoalo, said to address the number of unlicensed road users would mean “stepping up the number of roadblocks and continuing checking a million vehicles a month to see which motorists have licences and which do not and taking those who don't have licences off the road.”

Automobile Association spokesman Gary Ronald said while preliminary figures showed a decrease they could well pass last year's figures after finalisation.

“What is of concern is the increase in the number of crashes compared to last year.

“This points to no change in road user behaviour on our roads,” said Ronald. - Pretoria News

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