Childrens’ safety can’t be neglected

October is National Transport month and a lot of related issues have been in the spotlight over the last few weeks. Press releases have circulated of late addressing the subject with initiatives ranging from free screenings for truck drivers to teaching kids road safety. But in all fairness, taking the annual death toll on our roads into consideration, we shouldn’t wait for a specific month to address our problems but rather raise awareness on an ongoing basis and as comprehensive and best we possibly can.

According to the South African Journal of Science, pedestrians are among the most vulnerable road users as an estimated 40% of road deaths in South Africa last year were pedestrian deaths. An alarming 16.3% of the pedestrians killed in vehicle accidents were children younger than 10 and 20.8% were children 14 years or younger.

That is incredibly sad, but nonetheless easy to see why. On a recent car launch in KwaZulu-Natal, the route took us through some very rural villages. It was early afternoon and kids were on their way home from school everywhere. Much to our dismay, most of them were completely ignorant about the dangers of the roads and the cars, taxis and trucks passing through.

They were taking chances left, right and centre and darted across the road right in front of our car numerous times even when the road was clear behind us. And the shocking thing was that this wasn’t limited to the smaller kids. The high school children didn’t seem to know any better.

And to make things worse, kids where catching lifts by standing on big trucks’ rear bumpers and jumped off right in from of cars.

This was a serious eye-opener and a dead giveaway that not enough education is being put on road safety in those rural schools. And my honest guess would be that it is not restricted to KZN or the country, but is probably the case right across most provinces in South Africa.

The figures don’t lie and they are big enough to indicate a real problem. We can’t wait for October every year to parade initiatives around, because one child being run over is one too many already.

And if kids aren’t taugh proper road safety, they’ll grow up to be adults still oblivious to the dangers of the road.

In this week’s edition, we take a look at Honda’s serious little Amaze sedan, which Ntsako Mthethwa drove in Cape Town last week.

We also bring you our road test numbers on Kia’s red-hot Stinger, a car bound to change perceptions of the Korean manufacturer.