Issued by the Department of Transport
Pretoria 6 December 1999
Members of the Board, constituting my colleagues, the Ministers of Transport of the Provinces and delegates of various private sector organisations; and senior officials of the various Departments of Transport and Traffic of the three tiers of Government; I like to extend a very hearty welcome to you all to this meeting of the Road Traffic Safety Board.
This is the third meeting of the Board, and for the fact that it takes place two years after the second meeting, I have to apologise. I am not going to deliberate any further on this matter , except to say that a lot of work has been done in the field of road traffic over this period which we will discuss today.
This meeting of the Board is attended by quite a few new members. For their sake I regard it as necessary to start off by giving a broad overview of the series of events that lead to the creation of the Board, the expected functions of the Board , as well as road traffic safety in general.
Road traffic fatalities in South Africa peaked in 1991 when 444 541 accidents resulted in more than 11 000 persons killed. Upon taking office in 1994 the incoming Government identified improvements in the transport sector and the reduction of road traffic accidents amongst its top priority projects. Work on the preparation of a National Transport Policy commenced in 1995 with the full participation of all stakeholders and roleplayers. In the Policy, approved as a White Paper by Parliament in September 1996, a special chapter is dedicated to road traffic.
In support of the White Paper, then still a Green Paper, a Road Traffic Quality and Safety Symposium was held in July 1996 in order to develop a comprehensive Road Traffic Management Strategy in support of the National Policy.
This Strategy is an ambitious document, covering all related aspects within the field of road traffic management and, from the onset it was realised that special measures will have to be taken and structures put in place in order to ensure its full and effective implementation.
The main functional areas covered by the Strategy, most of which will be discussed during this meeting, include amongst others:
The Road Traffic Safety Board was created and held its first meeting on the 31st of January 1997.
The main purpose of the Board can be summarised as follows:
I did mention above that the Strategy is a rather ambitious document and the development and prioritisation of tactical implementation strategies and in particular the identification of sustainable financing sources for the implementation of specific projects, did take some time. The extraordinary high accident and fatality rates over the December 1996 and Easter 1997 holiday periods resulted in a call from Parliament to my predecessor, Minister Mac Maharaj, to expedite implementation of the Strategy and the implementation of certain projects which could deliver instant results.
A meeting was arranged with key stakeholders in May 1997 to address the matter and after identifying and selecting some of the above functional areas which could result in immediate, tangible results, the short term implementation plan (STIP), later named the Arrive Alive Road Safety Campaign was embarked upon on 1 October 1997. This Board was submitted with detail on the fist phase of the campaign at its second meeting held on 20 November 1997 at which the Board also supported and approved the campaign.
Members should note that the logo or emblem of the Board, together with the addition of the words "ARRIVE ALIVE" , are being used for the identification of this project, and which had become rather well known by the public over the past two years.
Now into its fourth phase, which was jointly launched by me and my colleagues on Monday, 22 November this year in KwaZulu-Natal, it can be stated that this campaign indeed resulted in the desired outcome, that is: a reduction in fatalities of at least 5% when compared to the same period the previous year. Road deaths reduced from 9 691 in 1997 to 9 068 in 1998, a reduction of 6,43% saving 623 lives and the country approximately R475,3 million in casualty accidents. Serious injuries went down 7,78% from 39 302 in 1997 to 36 246 in 1998 and slight injuries were reduced by 8,07% for the same period. However, a total of more than 511 000 road traffic accidents still cost the country in the order of R13,4 billion in 1998, which is a very clear indication that a lot of work still needs to be done to bring our statistics more in line with the rest of the world.
The Arrive Alive Campaign targets mainly critical offences resulting in accidents and fatalities namely:
speeding; driving under the influence of alcohol; the wearing of seatbelts; driver and vehicle fitness aspects and fatigue, as well as pedestrian safety matters through country-wide, well coordinated and intensified law-enforcement and communication programmes.
During the campaign attention is also given to improved utilisation of modern law-enforcement technology and equipment, for example alcohol breathalysers; the operation of speed camera offices; related short term training of officials and the development and implementation of computerised programmes assisting law-enforcement authorities in tactical planning procedures.
In order to expand the Strategy further, two other projects also commenced during 1998, namely development work on an administrative adjudication system and the creation of an organisation which would accept full and dedicated responsibility for all aspects of road traffic management, taking cognisance of the assigned responsibilities to the three tiers of Government in our Constitution.
The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act was approved by Parliament in September 1998.
The aims of this Act, amongst others are to:
An Infringement Agency, to be governed by a Board and overseen jointly by myself and my colleague, the Minister of Justice, Dr Maduna, will be established early in the year 2000 when this Act will enter into force on an incremental basis.
Following the work done by a dedicated, joint national and provincial team and lengthy and in-depth discussions at all tiers of government, Parliament approved in April this year an Act for the creation of a Road Traffic Management Corporation, the RTMC.
This RTMC, which will be governed by myself, my colleagues of the provinces and two representatives of local government, (SALGA), will accept full responsibility for the effective implementation of all the resolutions on the various functional areas contained in the Road Traffic Management Strategy, which I have mentioned earlier.
The RTMC, which is particularly aimed at power sharing between the three tiers of government and the elimination of fragmentation in decision making and other responsibilities for traffic management, will, amongst others:
This is one of our top priority projects, receiving all the required attention in order to establish the Corporation by early next year.
Another top priority project that I would briefly like to mention resulted from the spate of serious bus accidents that we experienced during September and October this year. In reviewing our accident statistics and considering the fact that we , as a country are experiencing in the order of about 5 500 bus accidents annually , I requested , just the week before the Lydenburg disaster, that a meeting be arranged to discuss the matter and to find solutions to the problem. The Lydenburg accident prompted that this meeting be held earlier than envisaged, and resulted in a Summit on bus accidents on Thursday, 30 September in Cape Town.
The main resolutions of the Summit called for the establishment of a Special Government Task Force on Bus Safety as well as a Joint Working Group with stakeholders to establish mechanisms to implement certain medium term actions such as, for example, maximum driving hours, compulsory vehicle recording equipment, review of regulatory measures, and so on.
Other resolutions included better co-operation of the organized bus industry and organized labour to work together in a campaign of driver education and training to improve the quality and skills of bus drivers across the industry.
The final report will contain recommendations on the following six topics:
Most of the matters that I have mentioned do appear on our agenda. This will allow us to discuss some issues in more detail and the provide the opportunity to members of the Board to submit their points of view on the way forward.
An important issue that is also included on our agenda, under item 7, concerns the future of the Board. The RTMC act provides for the possible establishment of a Board to assist the Shareholders Committee of the RTMC.
That Board will consist of a maximum of 8 members and we will have to discuss and decide today on the future role of this Board, the Road Traffic Safety Board, in the field of road traffic management and possible interaction between the two Boards and the Shareholders Committee.
Lastly. It should be noted that the Strategy is now three years old. Recent events could serve as an opportunity not to re-invent the wheel , but rather to effect the necessary updates which will allow more effective implementation of worthwhile projects that will result in the desired outcome in at least the short and medium term.
Thank you