New road safety strategy for SA?

File picture: ER24

File picture: ER24

Published Mar 14, 2016

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Midrand - Minister Dipuo Peters has expressed concern that South African roads are among the most dangerous in the world.

She said the country recorded the highest road death rate of 23.5 per 100 000 people in 2014 when the global average was 17.4 fatalities per 100 000 people.

“Middle-income countries like us record an average of 18.4 fatalities per 100” she said. She was speaking at a national road safety summit at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Midrand on Saturday.

Zero tolerance ... yada, yada, yada

Road safety activists and other transport stakeholders had met to deliberate on how they could contribute towards a reduction of road deaths and accidents. Participants from across the country made inputs on how to develop a new, goal-based road safety strategy that embodied the principle of safety system approach. Their inputs would be incorporated into a national road strategy document which Peters would present to Parliament.

As a participant of the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety, South Africa has endorsed the global undertaking to save up to 5 million lives and contribute to preventing up to 50 million serious injuries by 2020,” Peters said.

CARNAGE CONTINUES

With the Easter weekend around the corner, Peters issued a stern warning to motorists who did not obey the rules of the road. She said law enforcement would be on high alert for the coming two consecutive long weekends.

The official launch of the Easter season campaign would take place at Menken in Limpopo on March 18.

Weekend crashes included the accident in which two people died, and two were injured in a single car accident on the R513 KwaMhlanga road between Mamelodi and Moloto. In Vanderbijlpark, two Sri Lankan citizens were killed when they were hit by a speeding car on Saturday night.

Retaking driving licences: bad idea

It was alleged that the 26-year-old driver of a new BMW M4 was “travelling at excessive speed” in a 60km/h zone in Vanderbijlpark when he lost control of the car, which overturned, hit a tree, and smashed into the Sri Lankan couple, walking on the pavement, before coming to a rest on the centre island, Sibasa said.

The couple were visiting a friend in South Africa and were walking back from a restaurant to the friend’s home in Vanderbijlpark.

The Star

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