MyCiTi drivers ‘struggle to stay awake’

April 3 2014
By Daneel Knoetze

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CAPE ARGUS

Kayalethu Stokwe was fired for negligent driving after an accident in which he drove into the back of another bus on the fifth day of split shifts. Picture: Jason Boud

Related Stories

• MyCiti bus strike causes chaos
• MyCiTi bus drivers strike

Cape Town -

MyCiTi bus driver Johannes Gordon is so tired he often nods off at traffic lights.

“All the other cars go when the light turns green, but I sometimes find myself just sitting there in a daze. It’s up to the passengers to shout, ‘Driver, it’s green,’ and then I snap out of it.”

But that’s not the worst of it.

He drives the long route from the city to Hout Bay along Victoria Drive, and he describes his “special technique” to avoid falling asleep and letting the bus plunge off a cliff.

“I am a Christian, so I pray to God. I pray for him to keep me awake, and about other things. I find that the conversation with God helps me to stay awake. But my eyes still burn.”

Striking MyCiti drivers gather outside the Green Point depot on Wednesday. Picture: Willem Law

CAPE ARGUS

A wildcat strike on Wednesday by drivers working for Transpeninsula Investments (TPI), one of three companies contracted to provide the MyCiTi service for the City of Cape Town, seriously interrupted the service. Drivers told the Cape Argus they were endangering their own lives and those of commuters because of inadequate rest periods and exhaustion.

But TPI has denied any knowledge of these grievances and charged that the drivers had not used the proper channels to engage the management before going on their unprotected strike.

Half a dozen striking drivers spoke to the Cape Argus at the offices of the Transport and Omnibus Workers Union (Towu) in Observatory.

At issue was the split shift, which ensured that drivers were available for the morning and evening peaks. But the drivers said they did not have enough time to rest between the shifts.

Gordon said that after a few days on the split shift, he regularly nodded off behind the wheel. Commuters “would not step near a bus” if they knew how tired some drivers were.

When working a split shift, the drivers complain of having as little as an hour and a half at home, between being dropped off by the staff transport shuttle at night and being picked up again for the new day’s work.

Driver and Towu shop steward Rutherford Kiet described a typical day’s work on the split shift.

“Staff transport picks you up at 3am and then the bus picks up other drivers. At around 5am you are in the depot, and your shift starts. Sometimes you have to wait and only drive out on your first trip around 6.30am. You drive until around 10 or 10.30am.

“Then there is a break for a few hours, but nowhere to sleep – just steel chairs at the depot. There is not enough time to travel home if you live in Khayelitsha or Mitchells Plain.

“Your second work period is between about 5pm and 10.30pm, then back to the depot. But everyone has to wait for the last bus (which comes in at about 11pm) before the staff transport takes us home. Sometimes you get back at 1.30am. Then, you have to be ready to go again at 3am.”

Attempts to raise this grievance with TPI had fallen on deaf ears, Kiet added.

Frustrations boiled over on Wednesday and workers embarked on an unprotected strike, apparently triggered by the dismissal of driver Kayalethu Stokwe, who on Friday was found guilty by a disciplinary committee of negligent driving and fired.

The hearing followed a collision in which he drove into the back of another bus on the fifth day of split shifts.

He blames the crash on sleep-deprivation.

“I worked as a Golden Arrow driver for many years. I crashed because I fell asleep, not because I am a bad driver.”

Commuters were caught off guard when buses on the CBD, Dunoon, airport and Hout Bay services all failed to arrive on Wednesday morning.

Ghaalid Behardin, a TPI director, said: “This is all news to me. Why have these grievances not been raised with us via the proper channels? Instead, the agitators embarked on an unprotected strike and intimidated their colleagues into a work stoppage through threats of violence. That is unacceptable.”

However, Nezaam Davids, of the SA Road Passenger Bargaining Council, said he investigated allegations of unlawfully short rest periods and underpayment on March 10.

He found that both allegations had veracity, held a meeting with managers at TPI and issued a compliance order to the company.

The Basic Conditions of Employment Act prescribes a minimum daily rest period of 10 or 12 hours.

Towu president Fuad Inglis said that conditions at TPI amounted to “modern-day slavery”.

At first, the city avoided queries about the drivers’ working conditions, saying that it was inappropriate for it to comment on a labour dispute between TPI and its employees.

Later, mayoral committee member for transport Brett Herron said the allegations were concerning.

“If these allegations are in fact true, they would certainly impact on the safety of commuters and the staff of MyCiTi service.

“The city will investigate them with urgency.”

The workers had agreed to return to work on Thursday, and TPI said that as long as the drivers were at work, the services would be restored.

* TPI, Table Bay Area Rapid Transit and Kidrogen are the companies that have 12-year contracts with the city to provide the MyCiTi service.

daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za

Scooters ‘used to transport drugs’

April 3 2014 at 12:06pm
By Warren Fortune

 

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CAPE ARGUS

A Ghost Squad officer confiscates a scooter with a fake number plate at a repair shop in Manenberg. Pictures: Willem Law

Cape Town -

Drug dealers and gangsters are using a relatively new and mobile method of transporting their contraband around Cape Flats communities – the humble scooter.

The Cape Argus joined mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith and the City of Cape Town’s Ghost Squad on Wednesday as they searched the streets of Manenberg for suspected couriers.

Smith said many of the scooters used to carry drugs and firearms were either stolen or unlicensed. This was why the city’s traffic services (Ghost Squad) were involved in the joint operation with metro police and law enforcement officers.

“These poegies (scooters) are an absolute menace. They are used as runners in these high-risk communities like Manenberg to transport things like drugs from the seller to buyer,” said Smith. “They are now in substantial quantities, but what we have found out is that many that are used by the gangsters are stolen, not roadworthy and sometimes the VIN numbers are filed off as well.”

While doing the rounds on Wednesday, officials confiscated two scooters that had false licence plates. One of the scooters, which was found at a scooter repair shop, had a licence plate that belonged to a different make of vehicle.

One of the impounded scooters. It is believed scooters are being used to carry drugs and illegal firearms.

CAPE ARGUS

Smith said operations would be conducted in other high-risk areas as well, including Tafelsig, Elsies River, Beacon Valley and Athlone.

Smith also wants traffic officials to be more prominent in these areas, as it is only on major roads and highways and in central business areas where they are visible.

“These people who operate the scooters will stay in the confines of their neighbourhoods, because they know there is no type of authority watching over them… Once they go out on the main roads, then they know there is a risk of them being caught.”

Traffic officer Arthur Ripepi said the scooters were used not only to hide the drugs but also as a lookout.

“They normally hide (the drugs) underneath the seat or sometimes they have them on themselves. What gives us a real headache is that they use these people on scooters or motorcycles as spotters and tell each other when we are nearby.”

Although their main focus was on reckless driving on major roadways, Ripepi said working in areas like Manenberg was a unique experience.

“It is quite interesting, especially driving through the narrow side streets… and by visiting these places, you become accustomed to them.”

Cape Town traffic service spokeswoman Maxine Jordaan said residents in high-risk areas needed to know that their communities were serviced as well, and not just traffic hot spots.

warren.fortune@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

A beautiful and difficult bubble

March 26 2014
By Kieran Legg

 

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CAPE ARGUS

Cape Town-140314. Mitchells Plain's first ever traffic officer, Thomas Michael, took an Argus team on a historical tour of the area. Photo: Jason Boud

Cape Town - It seemed to grow from the dunes like a plantation. The brick homes stacked up slowly; bric-a-brac stalks rising tenaciously in the strong south-easter.

This is how Thomas Michaels, Mitchells Plain’s first traffic officer, remembers the township becoming the sprawling mini-city it is now.

The settlement is nearing its 40th birthday and there are more than 300 000 people living in the area.

But in 1976, it was the Wild West, the dunes echoing with the clangs of construction, with only sand roads to police and tumbleweed to clear from the half-built walls of future homes.

“There was nothing here, absolutely nothing,” says Michaels. “I sat here and I watched.”

Standing in the middle of Silversands Road where the old police station used to be – a small outhouse where the settlement’s first five officers slept, ate and worked – Michaels is still awestruck by the exponential expansion of what was once just a desert.

This picture, taken in 1982, shows a boy playing in a street off Dagbreek Avenue in the suburb of Westridge. (Civic Bulletin,December 1979)

ARCHIVE

“Here it was just sand,” he says, pointing down the road. “And over there,” now pointing at the dunes, “was the first home. BJ Vorster (prime minister during the late 1960s-70s) himself handed keys to the first resident.”

Mitchells Plain was designed by the apartheid government in the mid-1970s as a model suburb for coloured people. Intended as a “dormitory suburb”, the development was shown to international dignitaries as an example of the regime’s housing efforts on the plain.

By the late 1980s, the original 56 homes had grown to more than 33 000 – a rapid pace that would continue to characterise the suburb’s later expansion.

In the early days, Michaels’s directorate was simple. With little infrastructure, he was mainly an information officer – an “advert” for the law enforcement to come.

But as taxis moved into the area and the roads were frequented by more than the occasionally rolling ball of fynbos, he found himself pulling over drunk drivers on their way to Monwabisi beach and policing roadblocks on the suburb’s main roads.

“The case I remember best was busting a woman who was selling drivers’ licences from her home,” he says. “It was my first real case.”

But while crime was relatively low-key, there were already signs of the gang violence that would later plague parts of the suburb.

The area’s first station commander, Abraham Pieterson, 69, remembers that his early work involved cracking down on the gangs that moved into the area.

“You must understand, there was basically nothing connecting Mitchells Plain to the city,” he says.

In a way, the suburb existed in a self-contained bubble, and the unemployed quickly turned to crime to make a living, he says.

“These guys weren’t violent, yet. They knew which corner was theirs and they kept it that way. But we would often open post boxes (on patrols) to find packets of mandrax and dagga… They operated on a simple philosophy: you party now for free, you pay on Friday.

“They were powerful guys, respected by the community, you know. It was difficult to get people to talk,” he says.

When police did manage to nab gangsters, they were kept in cells built from corrugated iron, which stood in the back garden of the police station, boiling in the sun.

“Mitchells Plain was an interesting place, and difficult… It was also beautiful.”

Michaels shares Pieterson’s fond memories of the suburb’s early days. But unlike the policeman, the now retired traffic officer is pessimistic about Mitchells Plain’s future.

“There is no respect here for authority anymore,” he says. “We need more officers, we need to turn this around.”

kieran.legg@inl.co.za

Cape Argus

Drunk driving case blood sample query

 

• 19 Feb 2014
• Cape Argus

THE DRINKING and driving trial of musician Arno Carstens was postponed in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Carstens’s lawyer, Milton de la Harpe, was granted a postponement until today to finalise his cross-examination of State witness Tim Lourens, the head of forensic toxicology at the University of Pretoria.

Lourens started testifying in October last year.

Carstens was arrested three years ago for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol.

He has pleaded not guilty to a charge of drunk driving, alternatively driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.20 percent. The legal limit is 0.05 percent.

On Tuesday, De la Harpe continued to attack the methodology used by the laboratory that analysed the blood sample.

He also put it to Lourens that blood samples could be deemed unreliable because of the presence of micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses and fungi.

He said glucose levels presented another possibility for a faulty reading, because glucose was often elevated by shock or stress.

Lourens replied: “If one can inhibit ethanol fermentation, then other things can be controlled and reliable.”

When a blood sample was taken from an accused and put into a sterile tube, it was mixed with a sodium fluoride powder to prevent the formation of such micro-organisms.

De la Harpe asked if the powder would also be effective against Candida albacans, a common fungus that lived in much of the human population without harmful effect.

Lourens said the fungus had an enzyme which changed glucose into fermentation, but that this would be inhibited by the powder.

The defence lawyer said he found

BLERK this strange since Lourens had testified in another case at the same court that it would not inhibit the fungus.

The doctor denied he had said this and based his opinion on numerous studies.

“With all respect, you are not an expert in this field,” De la Harpe put to the doctor.

Lourens acknowledged that he was not an expert in this narrow field but that he would leave it to the court to decide. “I don’t claim to be an expert,” Lourens said. “Exactly,” replied the defence lawyer. Carstens’s team was expected to call its own expert, Neels Viljoen, a retired head of the forensic laboratory in Pretoria, sometime during the trial. – Sapa

AT THE MERCY OF THE COURT

• Chelsea Geach STAFF REPORTER chelsea.geach@inl.co.za

Drama as driver’s family react violently to photographers

I DON’T THINK THE OUTCOME WILL BRING ANY CLOSURE. THERE’S NO CLOSURE WHEN YOU’VE LOST THE LOVE OF YOUR LIFE

THE DRIVER whose two passengers were killed in a Waterfront crash in 2012 is set to plead guilty to charges of culpable homicide and reckless and negligent driving.

Jacobus Austin appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court to report that his plea bargain application had been rejected by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Instead of negotiating his sentence, he will be at the mercy of the court when he pleads guilty.

Austin’s passengers were Georgina Moreland, 19, who was killed instantly, and Rohan Roodt, 22, who died in hospital of his injuries.

Yesterday there was chaos outside the court as his family reacted violently to photographers, his father even throwing coffee at some of them.

Austin’s attorney, William Booth, said he hoped his client would receive a suspended sentence with correctional supervision, involving house arrest and community service.

But transport MEC Robin Carlisle, who came to court in support of the victims, said harsher sentences were needed in culpable homicide cases. “Without jail consequences the whole thing’s a farce. I don’t think people understand the extreme trauma attached to losing someone on the road.”

On December 9, 2012, at 2.40am, Georgina had been out partying with her girlfriends. It had started at Tiger Tiger in Claremont, then moved to Dizzy’s in Camps Bay and on to Shimmy Beach Club at the Waterfront. Georgina and her friends were heading back to Dizzy’s when they split up, and she got into a car with cousins Austin and Roodt.

Austin lost control of his new BMW on Dock Road near the One&Only hotel. The tyres left black skidmarks on the tar, leading up to the tree that smashed the car to pieces. Georgina was flung on to the road.

Georgina’s family has battled to come to terms with her death. Mother Louise Raynor, a conveyancing attorney, takes the long way round to visit clients at the Waterfront to avoid the bend where her daughter died.

At home in Camps Bay, Georgina’s bedroom has been left untouched, while the lives of her mother and older sister Carla have changed completely. “Life is quiet now,” said Carla.

The family don’t plan on attending any of the hearings when Austin’s case returns to court on 8 April.

“I don’t believe the outcome will bring any closure,” said Louise. “There’s no closure when you’ve lost the love of your life.”

Burning issue as city emergency staff are stretched to the limits

• 7 Feb 2014
• Cape Argus
• Anél Lewis METRO WRITER anel.lewis@inl.co.za

STAFF numbers across the City of Cape Town’s safety and security departments are “inadequate”, with fire and rescue services falling short of the numbers needed to be compliant.

PICTURE: MASIXOLE FENIDEMAND The city has only 954 firefighters, making the department ‘heavily understaffed’ to curb fires like the Valhalla Park blaze

In terms of the South African National Code for community protection for fire, the city needs to have a staff of 1 515 operational firefighters for compliance.

But according to the department’s business plan for the 2014/15 financial year, it has only 954 operational firefighters, making this one of the departments to be “heavily understaffed”.

Richard Bosman, executive director of safety and security, noted in the report that a further 240 reservists would be employed at the end of this financial year.

“This department needs to remain progressive in order to keep abreast of the ever-changing human and geographical environment and technologies of an ever-expanding city.”

Traffic services, also short on staff, will be stretched even further as the city hosts more events, and with the extension of the MyCiTi bus routes across the city.

Traffic chief Heathcliff Thomas said the city’s traffic staff were “clearly not adequate” for law enforcement across the metro.

“Critical staffing needs to exist in the enforcement environment and the increase in events and the introduction of the Integrated Rapid Transport system will severely impact on the small contingent of staff.”

There are 318 traffic officers in the traffic enforcement section who focus on daily traffic patrols, and they are supported by 13 traffic wardens. But Thomas said that since these officers worked three duties a day, there was reduced deployment at certain times. Annual leave, study and sick leave also put strain on staff capacity.

He said 456 uniformed traffic officials were employed permanently and 126 part- time traffic attendants manned road crossing points.

The department exceeded its targets last year in terms of enforcement and the reduction of accidents at the five highest frequency intersections.

Thomas said the department had set several targets for the next financial year, including a zero tolerance approach to speeding and drunk driving. More than R9 million would be spent on upgrading facilities that would improve service delivery, and there were plans to use the Ghost Squad more extensively.

But Thomas called for the appointment of additional staff, more parttime attendants and the possible use of volunteers to act as reserve traffic wardens at events.

Although Cape Town’s revenue from traffic fines, at 38 percent, is above the national average of below 20 percent, there was a sharp drop in this income for the previous financial year. It fell far short of the budgeted income of R167 653 for the 2012/13 financial year. Thomas, pictured left, said the reduction in camera fines issue could be attributed to the visible enforcement strategy of traffic services. There was also a delay in sending out fine notices because of technical problems. But Thomas noted in his report that the fine revenue income budget was unrealistic. Because fines were set by the court, they could not be raised annually.

Rudolph Wiltshire, chief of law enforcement and specialised services, said the shortage of patrol vehicles affected service delivery.

Metro police chief Wayne le Roux noted in his department’s business plan that service delivery protests had prevented the metro police from achieving some of its performance targets for last year.

The department plans to appoint more than 360 reservist firefighters over the next five years to supplement the professional fire service.

Despite its capacity constraints, the city’s fire services dealt with more than 26 000 incidents last year and exceeded its target of responding to calls within 14 minutes.

ROAD DEATHS DOWNON 2012, BUT GRIM REALITY REMAINS

 

• 10 Jan 2014
• Cape Argus
• Murray Williams and Sapa

Holiday toll nudges 1 400, but horror N1 crash in Cape gets year off to a black start

MAJOR CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS WERE DRUNK DRIVING, SPEEDING AND FAILURE TO WEAR SEATBELTS

IT WAS a summer holiday of carnage, with 1 376 people dying on the country’s roads between December 1 and January 7.

PICTURE: LEON MÜLLERLUCKY ESCAPE Two people were injured last month when their car hit a pole on the M5 between the Kenilworth and Rondebosch turn-offs

Even the fact that the figures announced by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters yesterday were 182 down on the tally a year ago did not seem much like good news.

Although the number of road deaths in the Western Cape was down last month, there has been a spike this month, largely because of the nine people who died in crash outside De Doorns on the N1 this week.

The provisional death toll on the Western Cape’s roads over the festive season was released yesterday by the Western Cape Transport Department and provided by the Department of Health’s Forensic Pathology Services.

Last month, 129 people died on the roads – down from 153 in the same month in 2012, 135 in 2011 and 150 in 2010.

Worryingly, the number of pedestrian deaths for last month was up, at 60 – as opposed to 55 in 2012, 50 in 2011 and 47 in 2010.

The number of deaths on motorbikes was up slightly, at 10, but passenger deaths were significantly down – at 32, compared with 59, 51 and 68 in previous Decembers.

By Wednesday morning, 37 people had died on the roads, up from 20, 24 and 30 in the preceding years’ first seven days.

Peters’s release of the provisional figures yesterday has sparked another row, with DA MP Ian Ollis saying the reporting period should end on Monday, after the coming weekend, when many people will be returning home from their holidays. Yesterday’s release meant any deaths over the weekend would be excluded.

But Peters brushed this criticism aside. “I am not going to respond to those who are sitting outside and barking when people are losing their lives. In fact, what we need to do is to capture numbers every day and notify South Africans on how many people are dying on our roads.

“Those who say we shouldn’t have released the statistics, they can continue speaking, we have work to do.”

Peters said most accidents were due to irresponsible and “disrespectful” conduct.

The major causes of accidents were drunk driving, speeding, reckless overtaking, driver fatigue, failure to wear seatbelts, unroadworthy vehicles, and unlicensed or illegally licensed drivers, she told reporters in Pretoria.

“May 2014 be the year that we turn the corner on road carnage and ensure that we drive with the right documents. There is only one licence issued by the Transport Department. We are in control over that and if you are reckless, we are going to withdraw your driver’s licence.”

Free State Roads and Transport MEC Butana Komphela said if he had his way he would eliminate driving schools.

“Minister, the driving schools have rampant corruption. I wish we would not have a driving school at all. They leave money in the cars for the traffic officer who is testing to pick up. I think we should do it, teaching learner drivers on our own. Many of the licences that are not okay are caused by these private driving schools.”

The DA has called for a special parliamentary investigation into the high death toll over the festive season.

Ollis said: “The investigation should result in the recommendation of programmes that will reduce the unnecessary loss of lives on our roads, as well as a review of the manner in which these deaths are reported by the Department of Transport.

“A major shift is needed to drastically reduce the number of lives lost on our roads.”

Ollis said the figures were also underreported, as the department used police reports to measure road deaths, and not data from forensic mortuaries.

“Minister Peters has a responsibility to report on the matter fairly. She has not done so,” Ollis said.

Drunk-drive botch-up

STEPHAN HOFSTATTER and PEARLIE JOUBERT | 05 January, 2014

Roadblock. File photo.

Police and traffic officers in South Africa's top tourist cities are making thousands of drunk-driving arrests that fail to result in convictions, amid claims that dockets are being tampered with for cash.

Internal documents obtained by Sunday Times reporters reveal that at Durban Central police station alone, 1481 arrests in 2012 led to only 111 convictions - a rate of 7.5%. This excludes thousands of dockets a year opened at other Durban police stations.

In Cape Town, 3022 drunk drivers were arrested in 2012 and 3089 in 2013, with fewer than 7% convicted, according to a senior official with access to provincial statistics.

Several senior officers interviewed in different parts of the country - some with direct knowledge of the cases - blamed corruption and chasing arrest quotas for dismal conviction rates. All spoke on condition of anonymity. One received death threats this week after Sunday Times reporters began to make enquiries.

They said police officers were not encouraged to build tight cases because convictions did not affect promotion prospects.

"At a typical roadblock, you employ up to 20 SA Police Service and metro police members for an eight-hour shift, getting paid overtime," said one official. "You need a booze bus, blood kits, a nurse to draw blood. Then you need two or three members to drive up to Pretoria every week to take these samples to the lab. It's a very costly, fruitless expense to the state. These members could be used to fight other crimes."

The official also said police officers were being paid to deliberately throw cases.

Another senior police officer said convictions were rare, either because the police botched the cases - intentionally or not - or the prosecutors withdrew charges. "They're also chasing targets and don't want these cases to clog up the courts. It's a scam."

A third official estimated that "80% and 90% of all drunken driving cases are thrown out of court or withdrawn because of botched blood samples or straightforward corruption".

"If one out of every 200 drunken driving cases gets a conviction, it's a lot," he said.

Another official agreed that the figures did not add up. "There's a huge discrepancy between the number of drunks caught and the number of convictions for drinking and driving," he said.

The Independent Police Investigative Directorate confirmed this week that Durban Central police station was in its sights.

"We are investigating a systemic corruption matter related to about 200 drunk-driving cases," said spokesman Moses Dlamini. "There are indeed cases where it is clear there is a problem."

Sunday Times reporters have seen a sample of 17 suspicious drunk-driving dockets at Durban Central from arrests in 2010, 2011 and 2012 in which charges were withdrawn - in all but one case by the same officer, a Captain NEP Ndlazi.

In six cases, Ndlazi closed the dockets several months before blood samples arrived from the laboratory.

The dockets are replete with other errors. In one case, the arresting officer failed to specify the time of the offence. In another, the time of taking a blood sample was "tampered with". Several dockets contain sworn statements showing that chain-of-evidence statements have gone missing or have not been signed - all grounds for throwing a case out.

In six cases, the forensic laboratory said the blood sample could not be analysed because it was "clotted", "dried in transit" or was "too small".

This was highly unlikely to happen without deliberate tampering, one official said. "What they do is put the sample in the microwave or leave it in the boot of the car on a hot day."

A government pathologist, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak to the media, confirmed blood samples taken at roadblocks "generally arrive in good condition" at laboratories.

Ndlazi refused to comment on specific allegations. "I will only discuss the allegations with the person investigating, who must come to me with all the evidence," she said.

Three cases involved minibus drivers transporting passengers. One was chased by a police vehicle after jumping a red light. He abandoned his taxi and fled on foot. When he was caught, he had bloodshot eyes and "smelt of liquor". Another minibus driver reeked of booze and had to be handcuffed after resisting arrest.

Several of the drivers told the Sunday Times they had no idea why the charges against them had been withdrawn. "They said they would contact me and nothing ever happened after that," said one. "It did feel a bit strange."

Another, who, according to his docket, was so intoxicated that he was "unable to blow into the breathalyser", confirmed the charges against him had been withdrawn, but declined to say why. "I got a lawyer," he said.

hofstatters@sundaytimes.co.za

joubertp@sundaytimes.co.za

December road deaths may be highest since 2007

Sapa | 02 January, 2014 14:35

File photo.
Image by: Gallo Images/Thinkstock

The number of road deaths between December 1 and 30 last year would likely be the highest recorded since 2007, an advanced driving skills company said.

A total of 1184 deaths took place over this period, or 39.5 deaths per day, www.driving.co.za managing director Rob Handfield-Jones said in a statement.

"This exceeds the record figure of 38 per day for the 2012 festive season. The Christmas period for 2013/2014 will end on January 13, by which time I expect the death toll to be approximately 1736 deaths based on past and current trends."

Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) spokeswoman Thato Mosena said Handfield-Jones should not create the impression the corporation was not doing enough, as road safety was a collective effort.

"We need all role players to join hands to reduce road deaths. We have an international commitment to reduce road deaths through the 2011 United Nations strategy of action," she said.

"This is a collective effort."

Handfield-Jones, who has monitored road deaths during the Christmas and Easter periods since 2007, believed the current figure could rise between 15 and 20 percent after the 30-day waiting period for road deaths had lapsed.

This meant the 2013/2014 festive season could become the first with over 2000 road deaths.

The main reason for road deaths increasing over the festive season was the failure of government to provide road safety leadership, he said.

According to the transport department and RTMC, the preliminary road deaths for previous years were:

• December 2007: 1142 people killed (the final figure was 1535);
• December 2008: 937 people;
• December 2009: 1050 people;
• December 2010: 1358 people;
• December 2011: 1232 people; and
• December 2012: 1279 people.

The figures for all the years except 2010 were for the month of December. The 2010 figure included deaths up to and including January 4.

The final death toll figures for the Decembers since 2007 had been higher than the preliminary figure.

"People only drive as badly as their governments allow them to," Handfield-Jones said.

"In countries like the USA and United Kingdom it is socially unacceptable to be a bad driver. Government road safety systems in those countries are aimed at improving competence."

South Africa, he believed, was the opposite.

"The RTMC showed a brief flash of intent while Gilberto Martins was acting CEO, but has since gone silent," Handfield-Jones said.

"Licensing is a corrupt mess, with probably half of all licences being issued fraudulently."

This created a culture of bribery among drivers who did not recognise the fatal consequences of illegally getting a licence.

To fix the problem, Handfield-Jones believed government needed to fix the poor gathering of road safety data, overhaul the licensing system, and prioritise law enforcement for moving violations.

"As long as the key priority of law enforcers is revenue generation rather than safety, South Africa's road deaths will continue to mount," he said.

Mosena said road safety began at a community level.

"We can't do it alone. We need to start at a community level to spread and enforce the message that road safety is a priority and we must reduce road deaths.

"We are concerned as the RTMC that there are some among us who are responsible for road deaths, and the reduction in road deaths is an urgent non-negotiable call."