Research indicates that road accidents cost the South African economy at least R306-billion a year, says Transport Minister Dipuo Peters.
This cost includes loss of skills, providing emergency medical and postcrash services, such as road repairs and cleanup operations, and Road Accident Fund (RAF) payments. The RAF pays out at least R15-billion a year to victims of road crashes, says Peters.

Roughly 14 000 people die on South African roads each year.

Peters says she has established an intergovernmental team of experts to investigate “pragmatic and sustainable interventions aimed at curbing the spate of road crashes in South Africa”.

The road safety team comprises senior officials from the Department of Transport, the Road Traffic Management Corporation, the Road Traffic Infringement Agency, the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and the RAF.
Three themes will guide the team, namely enforcement, engineering and education.
Peters says South Africa does not have sufficient law enforcement officers to police every corner of the country, and that part of the remedy to reduce road fatalities is to increase traffic personnel.

“We believe that with additional capacity on our roads, we will be able to better tackle the challenge confronting us.”

She adds that corrupt law enforcement officials continue to pose a challenge to road safety.

“Our request is simple: Do not offer bribes to our officers or accede to requests for bribes. It’s a criminal offence and you will be charged and prosecuted.”
Existing legislation is also being reviewed in an effort to curb road accidents and include a proposed two-year probation period for first-time applicants for driver’s licences.

Peters says her department has taken note of the fact that many provincial roads, outside Sanrals’ purview, are not in good condition.
“As part of directly strengthening capacity at provincial level, the department will from now onwards ensure that each province has a dedicated service provider when external support is needed to address the issue of road maintenance.”
National government has set aside R8.7-billion for the 2013/14 financial year to allocate to provinces for the rehabilitation and maintenance of roads. This allocation is additional to the budget set aside by provincial governments.
Peters says that Sanral will work closely with the road safety team to evaluate each major collision in order to ascertain whether any road engineering or structural factors contributed to the event.
She adds that while government holds the primary responsibility for ensuring safer roads, everyone has a role to play, “from drivers, fleet owners, passengers to pedestrians”.
She says fleet owners have a responsibility to ensure the roadworthiness of their vehicles before assigning them to drivers. They also have a responsibility to ensure that their drivers do not work long hours without rest, or while they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

“We will hold fleet owners accountable for collisions or crashes caused by unroadworthy vehicles [in] their fleets.”