Another bloody season, another release of stats that paints the very poor state of road safety in South Africa.
Drive More Safely has been saying for many years that the attitude and mindset of drivers need to be changed with urgency before we are going to make any impact on the killings on our roads.
Huge jokes all over social media were made because the minister used the word VRRRRRUPA when she released the earlier stats on the 19th December 2016. This VRRRRRUPA has killed
75% (men) of the road users this festive season.
If we look at the ages of the highest fatalities, between 18 and 42 years, these are the guys who are showing off. These are the guys who think they are above the law. These are the guys who
have no regard for life.
In the minster’s own words, 81% of fatalities are blacks.
So why are the numbers for black road users so high? Lets take a closer look at drivers licenses when we look at these figures. Around 95% of black drivers opt for a code 10 license when applying for one. The reason……code ten is a much easier test to perform and the pass rate of this test is much higher. The problem………..these learner drivers are trained in a truck. The performance is about zero, the speed is much slower and with the size you are forced to drive much slower. NO TRAINING IS GIVEN IN HIGH
NO TRAINING IS GIVEN IN HIGH-PERFORMANCE VEHICLES.
The learner driver passes the code 10 test but never intended to
The learner driver passes the code 10 test, but never intended to drive a truck but a car. They lose control and ………CRASH!!!!!!! Have no idea how to control this vehicle.
Training needs to start from code eight and then onwards. Pedestrian fatalities are down and we applaud the department for all the awareness and being on the ground educating and empowering pedestrians to be safe and responsible.
The use of seatbelts are still a major issue. 40% of the fatalities were passengers which paints a reckless and irresponsible picture. Drive More Safely has been part of the change in the NRTA to
include children under the age of three into the NRTA and to enforce the use of age appropriate child restraints. It saddens us to see that even after the huge amount of child restraints given to
children, the plea to ensure your child is safely strapped in, the use of this restraints are non in existence. The number of children standing between the front seats or sitting on the
The number of children standing between the front seats or sitting on the parents lap is alarming. An urgency to police this matter is in great need. Stiff fines should be issued and Should a child die in a crash, the parent should be charged with this death as it is negligence from the parents side.
DUI is an area of road safety that currently needs all departments to work together. The department of justice needs to have much more guilty findings with harsh penalties. A zero tolerance is needed with driving under the influence. Licenses should be suspended and repeat offenders should loose their licenses permanently. Before we do not start with harsh penalties, the deaths on our roads will keep escalating.
Drive More Safely is in great favor of more visibility on our roads, but also understands that the logistics and finances is a huge problem. An alternative has been send to the minster from Drive
More Safely, namely to copy the SAPS by employing traffic reservists on a voluntary basis during the peak times at all of the hot spots. These reservist officers will play a vital role in visibility on the roads and will have a huge impact on the moving violations that caused the majority of the fatalities this festive season namely head-on collisions.
These reservist officers will play a vital role in visibility on the roads and will have a huge impact on the moving violations that caused the majority of the fatalities this festive season namely head-on collisions.
The picture our festive season on the roads paints is one of devastation, one of heartbreak and more families are left with a permanent reminder of a crash that changed their lives forever.
Come South Africa, now is the time to stand up and drive more safely.
Road safety greetings
Drive More Safely Founder
Alida Jones