Minibus taxi drivers should not be singled out and disproportionately blamed for road crashes, new research has found.

Occupational therapist and postdoctoral research consultant Dr Lee Randall said the responsibility for minibus taxi crashes does not lie with only the driver but also with taxi owners and associations, taxi passengers, and even other road users.

In marking the 6th United Nations Global Road Safety Week between May 17 and 23, Randall challenges assumptions about road safety, minibus taxi crashes, and who is responsible through her thesis, ‘Coffins on wheels”: A bioethical study of work conditions, driver behaviour and road safety in the Johannesburg minibus taxi industry’.

Her research explored the working conditions of Johannesburg taxi drivers and how much this contributed to road crashes.

“The public tend to vilify minibus taxi drivers and ascribe a high degree of moral responsibility to them, but this intuitive reasoning seems to disregard their work conditions and how these affect their driving behaviour,” she said.

Randall pointed out that the minibus taxi is an indispensable mode of transport in Johannesburg, that is flexible and relatively affordable to between 65% and 75% of commuters.

The industry is also a key source of economic empowerment and employment, especially in historically disadvantaged areas.

However, she notes that with informal public transport, a lack of proper regulation in relation to driving standards and vehicle safety creates unacceptable crash risks. She conceded that minibus taxi crashes have contributed to Johannesburg’s road deaths and are more than triple the international city average.

However, she pointed out that minibus taxi drivers work at least six days a week, 15 hours a day, with no Unemployment Insurance Fund or overtime and they have to pay for their own petrol, professional driving permits, licences, taxi cleaning, and minor repairs.

"From these stressful realities they generate very low incomes, like wages of as little as R200 per week plus any ‘leftover’ fares on good days. Furthermore, statutory requirements like shifts being restricted to 9 hours and paid leave being provided are frequently ignored by taxi owners," added Randall.

She explained that in these conditions, taxi drivers have created “survival strategies” such as speeding and overloading.

She noted that the Johannesburg minibus taxi industry’s operating principles are “contra-constitutional” and violate the labour rights of taxi drivers, as well as the human rights of passengers and other road users.

“Taxi drivers are actually ‘indicator species’ – their behaviour points to significant problems in our wider mobility system,” Randall said.

She added that policymakers, road designers, law enforcers and even vehicle manufacturers have a high degree of accountability.

“For instance, there was a noticeable uptick in road deaths around the world when vehicles started featuring infotainment centres and smartphones became widely used, which helped spawn the misconception that it’s fine to do other things while driving. In relation to minibus taxi crashes, responsibilities clearly lie not only with the drivers but also with taxi owners and associations, taxi passengers, and even other road users,” she said.