Global effort to reduce road deaths

COUNTRIES are paying increasing attention to the safety of pedestrians – whose loss of life makes up 40% of South Africa’s road deaths.

Speaking at the Second High-level Conference on Road Safety, held in Brasilia last week, the Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters, said this was one of the main focuses of her department over the past five years.

More than 3 000 people die on roads across the world each day and these past five years were also the first half of the Decade of Action for Road Safety, an initiative that saw countries pledge to implement measures by 2020 that would curb road deaths by half, from 1.25 million deaths a year to 600 000.

The Global Status on Road Safety 2015 indicated that despite increased motorisation, road deaths appeared to be plateauing. But more work needed to be done to curb fatalities.

Peters said pedestrians were at risk because they shared road space with motorists, but the risk was exacerbated by people crossing roads unsafely.

She said 73 places in South Africa had been identified as “problem areas”, where dangerous crossings were common, and remedial measures had been taken by building 10 bridges and 230km of pavements dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists. This group, including motorcyclists, makes up 49% of road traffic deaths worldwide.

The report showed that the main cause of death of those aged between 15 and 29 were crashes. The provision of road safety and awareness at community and school level was the key to reducing deaths. More than 600 000 pupils had been reached through these campaigns, Peters said.

Make Roads Safe ambassador Zoleka Mandela also made an impassioned plea for road safety at the conference.

Her daughter Zenani, 13, was killed in a car crash in 2010 after a pre-World Cup concert.

She called for “serious action” to be taken by addressing reckless driving, speeding and drunken driving.