25 April 2001
The Minister of Transport, Dullah Omar called on all road-users to be vigilant during the long weekend starting on Freedom Day until Worker’s Day.
“Latest reports at our disposal indicate that accidents do not happen as a result of inevitable circumstances, but occur through circumstances that can be avoided if road users exercise more precautions and patience. I wish to call upon all our road-users (drivers, passengers and pedestrians) to be vigilant and play their visible role in promoting road safety. Observe the rules of the road and you will help to save lives. I am very concerned about the coming weekend because a general laxity in vigilance is creeping in”, Minister Omar said.
“The reduction of high roads death toll this Easter should encourage all of us to do much better. Our aggressive communications and education campaign carried out by the national department, provincial departments and other key stakeholders including media organisations should be supplemented by the cooperation and law compliance attitude from all those using the road network”, Minister Omar added.
Minister Omar said everyone must intensify efforts …. will further reduce the death toll substantially so that with the passage of time we reach zero death toll. He said it was heartening that there has been a reduction on road deaths while the number of vehicles on our roads has increased. But much more work needs to be done.
“If all of us could internalise sound road safety norms and values and reflect them in our behaviour we shall all Arrive Alive. It is understandable if someone dies from a cause beyond human control like an incident of a tree falling on a vehicle on a windy day or landslide. But the reality is that human factors had accounted for more than 90% of the accidents”, Omar warned.
He said speed still plays a major role in accidents. Minister Omar said ‘though I am not 100% satisfied, I can say with some relief that over the Easter holidays there was reasonable improvement in that there was greater awareness, drivers avoided unsafe overtaking, drivers observed stopping at robots, stop streets and yield signs, drivers kept safe following distances, and much fewer cases of the use of intoxicating substances like liquor and drugs were reported but of course there were the exceptions for which we all paid dearly. He thanked all road-users for their contribution to road safety over the Easter weekend.
Minister Omar called on drivers particularly bus and taxi drivers (professional drivers) and those driving long distances to make regular stops every two hours and to rest. He urged operators to allocate two drivers for long distance trips in a bid to address driver fatigue. He also called on passengers to use their cellphones on board a bus or a taxi to warn authorities of any problem or potential danger on the part of the driver/s.
“We want to bring back the culture of reporting unlawful behaviour. Our passengers should use the communications opportunities available to them to report a driver who is exceeding the speed limit, driving under the influence, driving for long distances without breaks, or who insist on overloading their vehicles”, Omar said.
When giving a brief account of the Easter Arrive Alive Campaign statistics, Minister Omar said major strides were made this year, which culminated in marked improvements compared to last year. He said final statistics show that fatality rate was 19% less whilst accidents rate declined by 22% as compared to Easter 2000 figure. Types of fatal crashes compel us to intensify our road safety campaigns in an endeavour to reach out to everyone in every corner of South Africa.
Fatal crashes with pedestrians were the highest at 36, followed by 23 overturned vehicles. Head and rear end collisions recorded 12 accidents. Two incidents apiece were reported for collisions with fixed objects and turn from the wrong lane. 3 collisions resulted from turning in front of an on coming car whilst 8 collisions could not be attributed. Kwazulu-Natal recorded the highest of 26 of the above fatal crashes figures. (This does not include the bus accident on 11 April which cost 29 lives).
Others were Western Cape with 14, Eastern Cape at 12, Free State and Gauteng shared the forth spot of highest record at 9 apiece. Northern Province registered 8 fatal collisions, Mpumalanga 6 and Northwest and Northern Cape have each recorded 4.
The worst day for accidents recorded was on 11th April when 29 people died in Kwazulu-Natal through a bus accident, which veered off road to down a steep slope.
“I am calling upon all our road-users alike to act vigilantly during this long weekend and do the right thing. Remember, accident don’t just happen, they are caused”, Omar said.
Minister Omar thanked all his provincial colleagues, officials, traffic officers, the emergency services, the SAPS, the SANDF, medical teams, fire brigades, the Arrive Alive Information Centre, the media, the private sector who participated during the Easter Campaign and other key stakeholders for their hard work which yielded some positive results.
ISSUED BY
Mike Mabasa
HEAD: Media Liaison and Corporate Communication
MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT