AA calls for better statistics to end road ‘guessing game’

THE Automobile Association’s head of public affairs Gary Ronald talks to The Herald about why statistics matter.

He said: “Until we have credible statistics for South Africa, we are only guessing at what might be going on on our roads. But why is this important?

“The answer is a simple one – governments around the world measure their road safety programmes by comparing stats from year to year.

“If a programme works, it will show up in the stats. Then it is possible to measure how much bang the taxpayers are getting for their buck.”

Ronald said the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) had not released a formal statistics bundle since 2011 and in four months’ time there would be a three-year delay between what was happening on our roads and publication of any data about it.

“Even the data that is available from the RTMC is problematic. Since 1999, data has only been made available on fatal crashes, instead of all crashes.

“The problem with fatal crashes is that in 1998, the last year that full statistics were made available, fatal crashes made up just 1% of all crashes.

“Formulating policy on the basis of fatal crashes alone is perilous because it excludes non-fatal crashes which might still result in life-changing injuries.”

Overall, Ronald said: “Our target should be zero crashes and zero injuries.

“We won’t achieve it, of course, but we’ll get far closer if we are able to understand how to spend taxpayer rands more cost effectively on road safety.”