Pretoria - In an effort to curb the increasing road fatalities on Moloto Road, Putco has offered advanced driving courses to its drivers.
This was revealed yesterday during the unveiling of the new 50 Putco buses for the troublesome road. The state-of-the-art buses have numerous cameras, GPS systems and advanced seats. They will take to the road, which links Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng, in the coming weeks.
In attendance at the unveiling were Gauteng MEC for Public Transport and Road Infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo and his Mpumalanga counterpart, Gillion Mashego, as well as Hani Municipality mayor Nomsa Mtsweni and managing director of Putco, Franco Pisapia.
Last month, the bus company entered into an agreement with Gerotek, an agency of Armscor, to train Putco drivers on the advance defensive driving programme in an effort to improve safety and reduce the number of accidents involving their buses.
The introduction of buses is part of an ongoing process to provide a safe, efficient, reliable and affordable transport system.
Putco is contracted to the Department of Transport to provide the subsidised bus services in various parts of the province, including Moloto Road.
Mamabolo reiterated that driver behaviour was the number one cause of fatalities. And it was even worse when a bus driver crashes because of the number of people involved.
“What are the main contributing factors to road accidents? Factors such as inexperience, lack of skill, and risk-taking behaviours have been associated with the collisions of young drivers,” he said.
Pisapia said the launch of the new fleet was envisioned to address major road safety concerns around breakdowns and accidents on the bus company’s fleet, as well as to improve reliability of service.
He said an advanced driving course developed a skill of maintaining the speed and the position of your vehicle smoothly, safely and systematically, while conforming to the traffic rules that further brought unexpected progress in driving skills. To make the most of advanced driving, a driver had to be positive and well-mannered.
“This is driving in a manner that can prevent potential collisions despite the incorrect actions of other road users in various weather, road and traffic conditions. As 85% to 90% of crashes are as a result of human error, training all drivers in defensive driving could result in drastic changes to road fatality statistics,” he said.
He did, however, admit this was not going to completely stop the crashes on Moloto Road, but it was going to make a difference. He urged Mamabolo that taxi drivers should also follow the same modus operandi of advance driving.
Last year, Mamabolo summoned the management of Putco to an urgent meeting to discuss the increasing number of crashes involving their buses. The action came after three crashes involving Putco buses at the time.
“Following the series of accidents involving Putco buses and especially on the Moloto Road, and the fact that just in less than 24 hours there had reportedly been four accidents, I engaged with them. In the discussions, I stated a wish that we could agree on an urgent plan on how they are going to deal with this issue,” said Mamabolo. Asked about how far the proposed Moloto corridor project had progressed, Mamabolo said the road had already been handed over to the South African National Roads Agency Limited, which was responsible for the management, maintenance and development of the national road network.
Previously it was said that the corridor project would start once funding had been secured following re-prioritisation in the government. However, this has yet to happen.