June 15, 2017
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Walking dead ‘Teach Gr 1 pupils how to cross the road safely’ ALWYN VILJOEN STATISTICS from the Road Traffic Management Corpora tion’s 2009 to 2016 road traffic report calendars show KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng have the most road deaths in SA, each province contributing almost 20% to the national total. Northern Cape (2,9%), Free State (7,0%) and North West (7,7%) had the lowest number of deaths. Thanks to seat belts, crumple zones and reinforced roof beams, drivers often walk away from low speed collisions. Pedestrians are not so lucky. On average over the past dec ade, pedestrians made up just over one in every four road deaths (27%), but last year this number rose to 38%. Of the 14 071 friends and fami
ly who died in road deaths last year, 5 410 were walking or in a few instances, cycling next to the road. Yes, a lot of them were taking their chance in traffic by jaywalk ing (38,8%), but hitandrun crashes killed 18,5%. Drivers meanwhile are mostly dying because of human error, but high speed is also killing many (14,1%), while overtaking in the face of oncoming traffic claimed a surprisingly low 6,9%, drunk driving or driving while on drugs 3,6%, and driver fatigue 2,2%. The Automobile Association (AA) said in a statement these figures should worry every mo torist in the country. “These numbers seem to indi cate that awareness campaigns and education initiatives are not working well enough, driver atti
tudes are getting worse, and that law enforcement is not making the impact it should. “We are deeply concerned about these fatalities, more so because they show an increase, and call for urgent action from all roleplayers involved in road safety to reverse this,” the AA said. The AA noted that while the government plays a pivotal role in addressing the carnage on the country’s roads, motorists and pedestrians seem to not be heed ing the call to drive and walk saf er, and should see these numbers as a stark warning. “Too often motorists are driv ing recklessly or not obeying the rules of the road. “Similarly, pedestrians are not protecting themselves by being more visible to cars, or are taking chances crossing over roads
The Harry Gwala stadium and pitch in Pietermaritzburg, which seats only 12 000 people, would fill to overflowing if the 14 071 people who died on South Africa’s roads last year could all return. PHOTO: FOOTBALLTRIPPER.COM where they shouldn’t. “More effort is needed by both groups of road users, and more effort is needed by organisations involved in road safety to make safety a priority,” the AA said. Wheels spoke to several citi zens in KZN’s capital to hear how this can be done. Dan Govender, a community activist, agreed with the AA that a wider ap proach to road safety education
is needed, and said he has made several proposals to relevant bodies to start by teaching Grade Rs how to cross a road safely. Vehicle technician Lunga Siba ya said people who have never steered a vehicle have no clue of closing distances or reaction times, which is why pedestrians often get it fatally wrong. He mooted using KZN’s steep hills and drifting trikes to teach
pedestrians these principles in a fun way. Top drift car driver Kurt Vol mink agreed fun is the best way to teach road safety to both driv ers and pedestrians, and said the motoring event to be hosted at Mason’s Mill for Youth Day to morrow aims to impart knowl edge on car control and speed to the fans — most of whom walk in from Edendale.
Sanral on average collects 1 400 bags of litter monthly along the 138 km road between Umdloti and Empangeni, and pleads with road users to stop throwing things out of their vehicles. PHOTO: SANRAL
Plea for road users not to litter AS part of the international day for people to do something posi tive for the environment, Sanral has asked motorists and passen gers to keep their litter in their cars. Sanral’s environmental man ager Mpati Makoa said it was as tonishing how many things peo ple just throw out of their vehicle windows, with little regard on the impact it has. Cleaning up the mess is ex pensive and timeconsuming, and has become an unfortunate part of what the South African National Roads Agency SOC Ltd (Sanral) has to do right across the country. Sanral reported that a total of 80 601 litter bags were collected during the 2016/17 financial year in the Eastern Cape alone. These were along the N2, R62, Tsitsi kamma toll plaza, R58, N19, N20, R390, R391 and the R396. Around 10 cubic metres of lit ter is collected per day per team on days that debris and litter is collected. In some areas collec
tion is done once a month, while in some twice a month. All litter is disposed of at registered local municipal landfill sites at each town along the routes. There are some strange items that have been picked up by San ral’s routine road maintenance staff. These include plastic bags full of used nappies, bottles with urine and animal carcasses amongst others. Fast food wrappers, boxes and soft drink bottles are typical lit ter that is collected on a regular basis on national roads. Loads of household litter in refuse bags are also picked up on the side of the roads, totalling about six to 10 cubic metres in the Eastern Cape. In KZN, the experience is not much different. The 138 km stretch of road from Umdloti to Empangeni is split into four sec tions. An emerging subcontrac tor is appointed for each section to conduct routine road mainte nance and this includes litter picking. On this stretch, litter
picking is done once a month at the beginning of each month. On average on each of the four sections, 350 bags of litter are picked up at the beginning of each month. On the whole stretch of road, a total of 1 400 bags are picked up monthly. Looking at major routes in the both the Western and Northern Cape, about 22 000 bags of lit ter are collected on average, on a monthly basis. Where possi ble, a sizable portion is diverted away from landfill and used for recycling initiatives, particularly glass and plastic. “Picking up litter is part of routine road maintenance du ties. It takes 10 days to complete the litter pickup exercise. All the bags of litter are loaded onto ve hicles and offloaded at regis tered landfill sites along the routes. The strangest items the teams have picked up vary from a wedding ring to strange toys that are best not mentioned,” said Makoa. — WR.
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