Enforcement alone is not enough to achieve safer South African roads, Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele said in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
“Our integrated public transport networks should be planned to reduce travelling time and increase safety,” he said at the launch of Transport Month at Park Station.
“The BRT system represents one great leap that combines safety and affordability of public transport,” he said.
Ndebele said that if more of these forms of public transport were provided throughout the country there would be fewer cars on the roads and fewer accidents.
The primary contributing factors in fatal crashes were motorists driving at excessive speed, drinking and driving and the non-wearing of seatbelts, he said, adding that motorcars, light delivery vehicles and minibuses were most likely to be involved in crashes.
16 000 die in accidents annually
Road safety was a necessary condition for South Africa to move from developing status to developed, because “dead people do not enjoy the benefits of development”.
In a statement, Ndebele said more than 16 000 people were killed a year in crashes on the country’s roads.
“This costs the country more than R14bn annually. But, through the road safety and Arrive Alive campaign we see the benefits of visible policing and tight law enforcement.
Ndebele said a road safety conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in July concluded that Africa had the world’s most dangerous roads and that it had only avoided a catastrophic number of road deaths because of low motorisation.
Bigger killer than malaria
The conference estimated that by 2015, road crashes would outstrip malaria and HIV/Aids as the number one killer of children aged between five and 14.
He said the ministry was committed to implementing the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) throughout the country in 2010.
AARTO seeks to effect an efficient road traffic management environment and enhance a culture of compliance through a demerit system.
– SAPA
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