South Africa's shocking reputation for road accidents worsened last week when it emerged that a record 1,300 people were killed over the festive season - a jump of 25 per cent from last year.
Mangled vehicles became a regular sight along South Africa's roads during the Christmas period - often attended by emergency crews carrying away the dead and injured.
The steadily growing death count was announced hourly on radio news bulletins, along with a grim league table of fatalities recorded in each province.
More than 10,000 people died on South Africa's roads last year, including 364 tourists. Politicians and campaigners have argued over why the country's roads should be so perilous.
Alcohol is a dominant factor. Drinking and driving does not carry the same stigma as it does in Europe, and 60 per cent of accidents reported between December 1 and January 10 were drink-related.
Two senior members of the ruling African National Congress were among more than 50,000 drivers fined for speeding and other traffic offences.
Road safety campaigners contrasted South Africa's accident rate with that of Australia, which has similar traffic volumes, road and weather conditions, yet where only 66 people were killed during the same six-week period.
A government safety campaign - which included warnings to pedestrians of the dangers of walking along the roads while drunk - was condemned as a failure, and there were demands for the transport minister to resign.
"About half of the victims in our mortuaries have blood-alcohol levels that exceed the legal limit for drivers," said Dullah Omar, the transport minister. More than a third of those killed were pedestrians, prompting the government's "Don't Drink and Walk" campaign.
Unroadworthy vehicles and treacherous driving present a permanent hazard. Last year, a random survey by police of Johannesburg's minibus taxis - which often carry 20 passengers or more - found that only four per cent of vehicles were on the road legally. When these minibuses crash, the death count can be in double figures.
South Africa's leading road safety campaigner, Moira Winslow, believes that ineffective policing is at the root of the problem.
Mrs Winslow, who set up a group called Drive Alive after her son, daughter and two grandchildren were killed in a car crash in 1989, said that at least 60,000 road traffic officers were required to cover the country's extensive road network.
There is considerable confusion about how many traffic police there actually are. Mr Omar said he thought there were about 10,000 officers, but his spokesman estimated the figure to be 5,000. The national secretary of the Institute of Traffic and Municipal Police Officers said there were 8,000, but added that South Africa needed a total of 30,000.
Disagreements over the causes for the festive season carnage have descended into accusations of racism.
Mrs Winslow blamed the high death count on "inexperienced and untrained civil servants", who were often prone to take bribes from motorists. This has been interpreted by some as a criticism of the government's affirmative action policy, which has encouraged older, more experienced and usually white police officers to retire from the force, to make way for young, predominantly black, recruits.
Tasneem Essop, the transport minister for Western Cape province, condemned Mrs Winslow for her "racist" remark and demanded "constructive co-operation" instead.
In a newspaper interview, Mr Omar suggested apartheid had played its part in making South Africans dangerous behind the wheel. "I think it is part of our history," he said. "We have emerged from a culture in which violence was a way of life."
With the December death toll on the roads now officially 1 113, which is 25 percent up on the previous year, important people are giving us the benefit of their wisdom on the matter - led by transport minister Dullah Omar who says there is no suggestion of the Road to Safety strategy having failed.
A few more successes by Road to Safety and there'll be more dead drivers on the roads than live ones.
But Omar concedes there are some problems. One is that traffic officers aren't trained to do much more than trap motorists exceeding the speed limit. He thought the country had about 10 000 traffic police. His departmental spokesman Ntau Letebele thought there were 5 000. The national secretary of the Institute of Traffic and Municipal Police Officers, Theo Grimbeek, said there were actually 8 000 and that South Africa needed a total of 30 000.
Drive Alive's Moira Winslow said at least 60 000 were required. Apart from these discrepancies, all agreed that something should be done and that someone else should do it.
Meanwhile, because trapping speedsters is what our police are best at, motorists are excelling at producing reasons for the need to drive fast when, having failed to kill themselves or others, they appear before magistrates.
One explained he had to reach a hotel toilet urgently as using a public convenience along the road was contrary to his religious beliefs. Another explained his accelerator had jammed, and a third said his car always went faster down a hill. Many were speeding to attend a funeral on time, probably someone's whose excuse was offered as a reason for his premature arrival at the pearly gates' stop sign.
For those running out of reasons, here are a few more: I drive a BMW, so I have to pass everything in sight; I have a very powerful car whose engine is not meant to rev slowly; I shot ahead because I thought I saw a traffic cop on my tail; I didn't see a traffic cop on my tail, so I thought it was okay to give it some juice; apparently traffic cops are only good at speed-trapping and I always like a challenge; I was trying to catch up with a driver to tell him he was going too fast.
But the best excuse has been provided by Dullah Omar himself: apartheid makes you drive like a maniac. In a weekend newspaper interview he is quoted as saying: "I actually think it is part of our history ... we have emerged from a culture in which violence was a way of life...".
At least we now kill one another on a non-racial basis.
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