Johannesburg - The national transport department and Road Traffic Management Corporation have been slammed for failing to release the most recent road death toll, allegedly because there has been a dramatic rise in fatalities.
The Justice Project SA criticised the corporation’s media strategy after it suddenly stopped releasing the ongoing death toll and sent out a statement saying it would only do so in January once it had been verified.
“Just because the preliminary death toll this year is apparently higher than last, and arguably the highest ever, is no reason to enforce an effective media blackout on it,” said JPSA chairman Howard Dembovsky.
“It’s arguable that while an ongoing tally of road deaths and injuries may not affect the behaviour of all road users, it is undeniable that it does have the effect of making some people more cautious than they would ordinarily be, and any effective road safety campaign must employ every tool at its disposal.”
On 20 December the transport department said more than 500 people had lost their lives as a result of road crashes in the first two weeks of the month.
The RTMC has denied claims it stopped releasing the statistics weekly because of a spike in road deaths.
Spokesman Simon Zwane said that while reviewing the statistics, they realised there were inaccuracies.
“A consolidated report of all crashes and fatalities will be released at the end of the festive season in January once all accidents have been collated, verified and validated,” he said.
“It is critical that South Africans are provided with accurate and verified information about the state of safety on the roads because roads are a shared space and users are important stakeholders.”
GOVT DENIES ‘SNEAKING‘
Meanwhile, the department has denied it is trying to sneak a regulation into law that will see the non-payment of e-tolls treated as traffic violations.
Recently gazetted amendments to the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act were published by the department on 7 December 7. It requests the public to comment before the closing date on 6 January.
On Tuesday, we published an article in which the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance questioned the timing of the gazette publication, which coincides with the holiday period.
Outa chairman Wayne Duvenage said at the time: “It’s typical of government. Even if they said we had to release it on the 7th, they should have given two months to respond. They should’ve said because it’s over the holiday, we want to give the public enough chance to respond. It smacks of underhanded tactics.”
But transport ministry chief of staff Tankiso Molekane denied this.
“The insinuation that the department is attempting to sneak this through without the public noticing is absolutely preposterous. The regulations are published specifically for the public to make input thereto, and a period of 30 days is allowed for that. Moreover, government is never on holiday,” he said.
He added the new infringement notification process wouldn't be an administrative burden, as suggested by Outa.
“An assessment has been undertaken on the capacity of the applicable systems and processes to manage the volumes expected, and there is no worry in respect thereof.”
The Star