The science of safety – how to curb road carnage

• By Hector Eliott

Tackle enforcement, education and speed now.

IT SEEMS SOME PARENTS ARE MORE CAREFUL SECURING A CASE OF BEER THAN A CHILD

From page 2 JUST two horrific crashes in KwaZulu-Natal claimed 34 lives recently, one involving Reed Dance maidens, the other a runaway truck. Let’s recap on the scope of the crisis on South African roads: 17 072 killed per annum at last count, and R306 billion, or close to 10 percent of GDP down the drain. So what do we need to do? Here are three suggestions which are by no means comprehensive.

PICTURE: SANDILE MMAKHOBANO CHANCE One of the cars was obliterated by the truck in the Pinetown crash

We should implement a national road safety strategy, as has been promised since 2009.

Development must happen now – implementation takes longer. The strategy needs to adopt international best practices, customise them to local conditions, and be developed in consultation with the full range of stakeholders, including our best academics, surgeons, EMTs (emergency medical technicians), engineers and traffic services, as well as the private sector and NGOs. The strategy needs to accept that road safety is a science that has been in existence for decades, and every intervention must be based on best practice and careful analysis of the evidence, not on guesswork.

In this regard, regular production of accurate road safety statistics must be revived and one or more state-of-the-art road safety research facilities must be created. The strategy must cover all actions required to make our roads safe. The Western Cape government has made admirable progress towards developing a safe systems strategy, and the City of Cape Town will soon release a road safety strategy for the metro, but overall direction must be unified, cover the whole of society and the entire country, be backed by serious budget, and must therefore come from national government. Such a strategy should include:

Bolstered enforcement, including better support from the justice system: serious offenders should be sentenced based on what they did, not on who they are, and middleclass convicted road killers like Andries Zuidema or Bhekilanga Nkalitshana should not walk free because they have jobs and dependants. Also, driver and vehicle licensing corruption needs to be tackled through facility surveillance, undercover operations and constant automated auditing of licences, backed by random traffic stops and roadblocks. Offenders, particularly corrupt officials, must be sanctioned to the full extent of the law, including severe fines and/or jail time for people who buy illegal licences.

Better road safety education, which is in an appalling state. As a result, most drivers and nearly all

Jpassengers don’t wear seatbelts. Some motorists even believe that wearing a seatbelt is dangerous. Few recognise the link between speed and the number of serious crashes on the road. Some even deny the link as vehemently as those who denied the link between HIV and Aids, based on as little evidence.

It seems some parents are more careful securing a case of beer in their vehicle than a child, send unaccompanied small children across busy roads to the shop, or let them play in the street unsupervised. Pedestrians wander across highways completely intoxicated. We need a systematic and sustained road safety education programme that utilises marketing and behavioural science techniques, and stigmatises reckless behaviours like drunk driving, speeding and not buckling in children. The programme needs to be broad-based and backed by enforcement action that reinforces the education message. It should be funded by redirecting part of the Road Accident Fund’s budget. The return on investment for the RAF will eclipse the outlay: more ads mean fewer prosthetic limbs and funerals.

Addressing speed. Appropriate traffic speed for the road environment is a core part of road safety. South Africa’s speed limits do not suit its infrastructure, vehicles and driver capabilities. They need to come down, finish enklaar. People won’t suddenly start obeying the new limit. But the evidence from around the world shows that the mean speed travelled goes down when speed limits are reduced, even where enforcement is not optimal. A 10km/h speed limit reduction can mean a four to 5km/h mean speed reduction. That in turn can mean a 10 percent reduction in serious crashes, and save thousands of lives. Lower speeds save lives with minuscule impacts on journey times.

We should implement a workable demerit points and administrative justice system, because the courts are so overburdened that even offenders who are caught often ultimately get away with it. We’ll need private tow-andimpound facilities so that police can swiftly impound vehicles that are not properly registered, or which are being driven without a licence. The current situation is to give the offender a fine and send them on their way. The fine is never paid, the vehicle never registered, and the driver never gets a licence, which prevents something like AARTO from working: you can’t take points off an unlicensed driver. The net result of a system that requires compliance to work, but costs drivers a lot to comply, and little to not comply, is, unsurprisingly, less compliance. If tow-andimpound facilities were available, the officer would inform control, which dispatches the nearest operator to come and collect the vehicle. The owner can only collect the vehicle with the necessary documentation and on payment of the relevant fines, which creates real consequences for non-compliance.

We need more policing, not more police, and we need to get the SAPS directly involved in law enforcement on the roads. As our new transport minister recently pointed out, the traffic services and metro police number 18 000 countrywide, which is minuscule, and these are not all optimally trained or equipped. SAPS has over 200 000 uniformed members, and needs to start taking a lead role in road policing. This means breathalysing everybody they stop at a roadblock or traffic stop, checking their identity and ensuring that their vehicle is legally registered and roadworthy. The SAPS needs to take action any time it sees the law being broken, including pedestrians on the highway, vehicles without registration plates, speeders and moving violations. The SAPS’s return on investment will be huge: as the roads are taken back, so criminals will find it harder to move themselves, victims, guns, drugs and contraband.

ROAD RAGE: CYCLISTS STRIKE BACK

Online hunt for motorist behind alleged assault

I STARTED FIGHTING BACK… HE JUST KEPT ON SHOUTING HOW HE WOULD KILL CYCLISTS

AR50 000 reward and an online campaign were at the centre of the hunt for a man who allegedly attacked and spat on a cyclist. Lona Marais was training in Blouberg when she was almost run over by a 4x4. She said the enraged driver jumped out his car, shoved her from her bike and punched her before speeding off. The incident sparked outrage online and the story was shared more than 1 000 times. Users on Facebook claimed the driver had been identified, it is understood he had handed himself over to the police. IT’S HARD to be anonymous in this age of Facebook and Twitter.

ROUGHED UP Cyclist Lona Marais claims she was attacked by a motorist on the side of the road

When Lona Marais was shoved off her bicycle, spat on and then held in front of oncoming traffic by the driver of a plateless vehicle, she was determined to bring him to book.

The Table View resident and a friend were on a training ride on Perlemoen Street in Blouberg on Monday morning.

It is a routine activity for Marais, 47, who has taken part in numerous Ironman competitions and, more recently, the Save the Rhino cycling event.

“As we were crossing the intersection, this big silver double-cab 4x4 just skips a stop sign and almost knocks me over.”

She said the driver was animatedly chatting on his cellphone.

“I shouted at him to get off the phone and watch where he was going. That’s when he rolled down the window and started hurling insults at me.”

Acclimatised to altercations with motorists, Marais thought nothing of the confrontation as the driver sped off.

But as she neared the road’s intersection with Marine Drive, she found the angry driver waiting for her. This time, he did not stay in the car. After berating her from the front seat, where he threatened to “kill all cyclists”, she said the motorist jumped out of the car and spat in her face.

“That’s how he introduced himself,” she said.

“He then shoved me off my bike, but I held on to him to keep my balance. That’s when he started punching my arms to loosen my grip.”

She said after she fell on to the road he grabbed her left arm, twisted it behind her back and then tried to force her into oncoming traffic.

“I started fighting back at that stage. I just remember being so calm during the whole thing.

“He just kept on shouting how he would kill cyclists.”

Drivers on the other side of the road, seeing the fight unfold, stopped and jumped out to help Marais.

“He got back into his car and sped off. That’s when I noticed he did not have any number plates.”

Marais said she was not badly hurt, coming away with only a few bruises on her arms.

She laid a formal charge at the Table View police station, but without being able to identify the driver it was evident the case was going nowhere. That was when her husband decided to hand out pamphlets and circulate a Facebook post, giving a description of the driver and his vehicle.

He urged people to help track down the motorist and offered R50 000 to anyone who could successfully identify him.

The post sparked outrage online, and quickly went viral as it was shared more than 1 000 times on Facebook and Twitter.

By last night, a friend of the Marais family said the driver had been identified.

“I would like to thank everyone for helping out,” wrote the user.

Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk confirmed that an assault charge had been laid at Table View police station.

Reports that the driver had handed himself over to the police yesterday afternoon could not be confirmed by the time of going to print.

12 DIE IN WEEKEND OF ROAD CARNAGE

• Cape Argus
• Kieran Legg STAFF REPORTER kieran.legg@inl.co.za

12 DIE IN WEEKEND OF ROAD CARNAGE

 

17 passengers injured as bakkie overturns

A COLLISION that left seven dead set the tone for what was another weekend of carnage on the Western Cape’s roads with 12 people killed in crashes across the province.

Yesterday morning there was chaos on Lansdowne Road in Khayelitsha when emergency teams scrambled to treat 17 passengers who had been flung from the back of a bakkie.

Metro EMS spokesman Darren Francis said that when paramedics arrived, one passenger was already dead.

Three critically injured men and seven seriously injured men and women were taken to the Khayelitsha Hospital, and the rest were taken to a nearby clinic.

ER24 spokesman Christo Venter said the bakkie had overturned.

In an incident in Lansdowne Road, Rondebosch East, early yesterday, two men in their twenties were killed when their car overturned and crashed into a tree.

Francis said both men were declared dead on the scene.

InRawsonville, a 22-year-old driver was crushed to death when his bakkie overturned on a gravel road, throwing the man from the vehicle and landing on top of him.

On the R45 near Stellenbosch, a collision between two cars left six people injured.

The leg of one injured person was amputated above the ankle before the person was taken to Paarl Hospital, Francis said.

The other victims, two of whom were seriously injured, were taken to Stellenbosch Hospital.

Another man was killed when his car crashed on the N2 close to the M5 exit.

The crashes came after a three-car pileup in Citrusdal left seven dead on Friday night.

A taxi carrying farm workers, smashed into a car parked on the roadside. It overturned and ended up back on the road.

A car crashed into the taxi, killing the car driver on impact.

Police spokesman Colonel Themibinkosi Kinana said 16 passengers were in the taxi.

The driver and five passengers were found dead on the scene by emergency services workers.

Emergency teams stabilised four of the critically injured passengers before taking them to Tygerberg Hospital.

The others were taken to Citrusdal Hospital.

Western Cape traffic chief Kenny Africa said the number of fatalities on the province’s roads over the weekend was far too high.

Thirteen people died in crashes across the Western Cape last week, and Africa has urged drivers not to take risks on the road.

DRIVE TO COMBAT BRIBERY, GRAFT

 

• 12 Sep 2013
• Cape Argus
• Neo Maditla STAFF REPORTER neo.maditla@inl.co.za

 

Illegal issuing of driving licences back in spotlight after arrests

CORRUPTION in the issuing of driving licences is back in the spotlight following arrests and conviction of law enforcement officers and learner drivers over the past few months.

IN A JAM People queue for driving licences at the Hillstar Traffic Centre. Up to 40 percent of South African drivers don’t have a valid licence, according to the AA

Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa said two law enforcement officers who had been charged with corruption in Beaufort West were sentenced to five years in prison two weeks ago.

The officers were demanding bribes from long-distance taxi drivers in exchange for allowing their unroadworthy vehicles to continue their journeys.

The AA said between 20 and 40 percent of South African drivers did not have a valid driving licence.

“Insurance estimates from the late 1980s and early 1990s were that 20 to 25 percent of drivers on South African roads didn’t have a valid licence, and the AA raised the spectre that the overall figure might have exceeded 30 percent and perhaps edged over 40 percent in a worst-case scenario.”

But the AA also pointed out it was almost impossible to establish the real scale of the problem due to improperly-issued licences being indistinguishable from genuine ones on e-Natis.

“The only way to check if a licence is genuine is to examine the supporting documentation at the original testing station, and with almost 10 million licensed drivers on our roads, it would be a mammoth task.”

Richard Bosman, executive director for safety and security for the City of Cape Town, said the city did not tolerate corrupt officials and took bribery allegations extremely seriously.

“In any cases where City of Cape Town staff are found to be involved in bribery, they are dealt with in terms of the disciplinary code and, where applicable, criminal cases are opened against them. Recently two members of staff were dismissed for such offences.”

Bosman said officials had also reported two incidents of attempted cheating and bribery.

The first took place in May at the Gordon’s Bay Drivers’ Licence Testing Centre where a man failed his learner’s licence test and tried to bribe an officer for a pass.

“The applicant handed (the examiner) a small plastic bank bag with R100 notes in it and tried to bribe her. She immediately reported the matter to her superior, showed him the plastic bag and the test, and explained the attempted bribe.”

There was R1 200 in the bag, and the man was arrested for bribery. He pleaded guilty in court and was sentenced to three years in prison or 1 000 hours of community service to be served before the end of December.

The second incident happened in July at the Goodwood Driving Licence Testing Centre where an examiner caught an applicant using a “cheat sheet”.

Bosman said the applicant was asked to stop writing, the police were called and the applicant was arrested.

Transport MEC Robin Carlisle said it was hard to determine whether incidents of corruption and bribery were on the rise.

“However they are of grave concern as they threaten the safety of others by unleashing unskilled and untrained killers on the roads.

“One incident of such fraud is one too many, and where we are made aware of such, we take swift and decisive action to bring those perpetrating these crimes to justice.”

‘I DIDN’T PULL THE TRIGGER’

 

• Natasha Bezuidenhout STAFF REPORTER

‘I DIDN’T PULL THE TRIGGER’

SCUFFLE: Cop says shot that killed ex-cricketer Luke Fairweather went off during struggle

FORMER Western Province cricketer Luke Fairweather slammed a city traffic officer so hard against a car’s rear windscreen that it broke.

PICTURE: JASON BOUDTESTIMONY Traffic officer Ian Sinclair outside the Wynberg inquest court yesterday

Describing the last moments of Fairweather’s life on a Newlands street two years ago, Officer Ian Sinclair told a Wynberg inquest court yesterday that he drew his firearm with his right hand, and Fairweather reached for it, covering Sinclair’s hand with his own.

Sinclair said: “I did not pull the trigger. With the violent struggle for possession of the firearm a shot was discharged.” Fairweather, wounded in the stomach, fell to his knees. “His hand was still on mine. He said: ‘You are going to die.’ Another traffic officer released his hand from mine,” Sinclair said.

Fairweather, pictured, collapsed and died. He was 49. Sinclair, 62, said that on that day, January 5, 2011, he had been tasked with escorting the South African cricket team from their hotel in the city centre to Newlands and back.

After arriving at the stadium at 9.05am, he began general patrol duties around the stadium.

About 4.55pm he was writing a traffic ticket on Mariendahl Road when he saw a Honda Jazz draw up in a no-stopping area. He began filling in a ticket for the Honda. By the time he had written it, the car had moved to where he was standing. He slipped the ticket through the window to the “elderly woman driving” – Fairweather’s mother, Margeret – and asked her to move the car, which she did.

“Three minutes later I was approached by a member of the public. He was 5 foot 10 inches, around 130kg and well- built. He walked straight up to me, his face a thumb’s width from mine, and said: ‘Why did you give my mother a f***ing ticket?’” “He walked back to the car, now parked in a driveway, crumpled up the ticket and threw it on the ground.”

Sinclair said he told Fairweather to pick it up: “I said, ‘Pick up the ticket or…’ and he interrupted me and said: ‘Well, then, f***ing well arrest me.’

“He advanced towards me and used his body to push me back in a very aggressive manner.”

Sinclair stepped back. Fairweather got into the car and reached for the door handle, but it slipped out of his hand, which seemed to infuriate him.

“He got out of the vehicle violently and launched an aggressive assault… He… hit me on the upper body. I backpedalled and drew my firearm… and pointed it to the ground… I thought that would stop the assault. He saw the firearm and shouted: ‘You want to shoot me, pull the f***ing trigger.’

“He grabbed me by the chest and arms and rammed me into the rear window of a Renault Scenic, which broke the back window.” A struggle for the gun followed, and a shot was discharged. “I did not pull the trigger.” Sinclair said he had bruises to his eye, cheek, rib cage, arm and hand. He felt shocked, disoriented and confused

The hearing continues today.