Photo by: Duane Daws
The Department of Transport has invited all transport stakeholders to contribute to the formulation of a road safety strategy for 2016 to 2020.
Transport Minister Dipuo Peters told attendees at a National Road Safety Strategy Engagement Summit at the weekend that the strategy would serve as a blueprint for all road safety interventions that needed to be implemented to create safer roads.
“It is an undeniable fact that South Africa has a serious challenge with regard to road safety,” she stated, adding that the country’s road death rate of 23.5 per 100 000 people in 2014 was far higher than the global average of 17.4 fatalities per 100 000 people.
“The scourge of fatalities and injuries rob our people, among others, of their rights to life, to pursue their freedom of trade occupation and profession as enshrined in our Constitution,” she noted.
Meanwhile, Peters highlighted that some progress had been made, as South Africa experienced reduced road traffic fatalities, with the figures dropping from 15 419 in 2006 to 12 702 as of 2014.
However, she pointed out that the decrease was not at the rate required for South Africa to realistically meet the international aspirational goals set out by the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 to achieve a 50% reduction by 2020.
Peters noted that the upcoming Easter holiday and long weekends, when many people would be travelling on the country’s main roads, provided the opportunity to start reducing accidents and fatalities, as well as reduce road accident costs.