Our attitude to road safety must change to curb death toll

THE ARTICLE (“Death stretch’s terrible toll”, Cape Times, August, 18) by Fransesca Villette with regard to road accidents on the N1 between Laingsburg and Beaufort West raises concerns. Statistics are difficult to obtain and don’t seem to be well evaluated.

However, there is no doubt the picture is horrific and does not seem to be improving. I have no idea what good the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) is doing in reducing accidents apart from spending our money. We must have one of the worst accident figures for any well developed country in the world.

I believe the 2016 yearly figure of deaths on our roads was 14 000. That is close to 1 200 per month or over 38 deaths per day. Frightening. Also almost 40% of these are pedestrians. What is being done about this?

Very little of real use, I would suggest. There is a fixation by authorities on speed. Yes, there is a bit more talk on drunken driving but speed takes top billing all the time. Has it reduced accidents?

Absolutely not. Of course one can always bring speed into a road accident scenario as moving vehicles are involved but how often is it the major or even a contributory cause? A one- to two- ton vehicle travelling at as low a speed as say 30km/h is not going to be good for any person it hits.

At the other end of the scale take the very few accidents on the open areas of German Autobahns where vehicles often travel in excess of 200km/h.

No, speed is not our problem. We have a major attitude problem that is the real cause of our terrible statistics. This applies to the way we drive, the poor state of repair we allow vehicles to be in, the corruption that allows people to have licences and permits they should not have to be on our roads, our poor road signage, poor road repair signage and more – much more.

Oh yes, drunk driving is a problem but that also is an attitude problem. There is, of course, the problem of drunk pedestrians and pedestrians apparently oblivious to the perils of walking on a road particularly at night which needs attention.

The answer is not speed trapping. No, what is needed is well-trained incorrupt police officers on the roads checking all sorts of things, moving about, being involved and being totally supported in their work by the powers that be. Wouldn’t it also be good to see detailed unbiased analysis of every accident? To get to the reason for this letter. I would plead with journalists to not follow the official line but give real thought to the cause of accidents they report on.

Most of the really bad accidents, such as the incredibly overloaded, brake-faulty taxi in KwaZulu-Natal, have little to do with speed.

Attitude… that is the problem, even of those poor poor passengers who allowed themselves to be crammed into that vehicle.