Concern has been expressed by the South African Road Federation (SARF) that the continuing spate of road accident-related deaths on our roads, shows that road safety must become an urgent priority in South Africa.

According to Innocent Jumo, president of SARF, the Federation has reiterated its commitment to offer its assistance to government and other related organisations, to fight the scourge of road accident related deaths in South Africa.

Adding, “The current figures are staggering. An average of 43 people dies each day on our roads. In general, 15% of road accidents are caused by road condition, 20% by vehicle condition and 70% through human behavioural factors.”

While SARF fully supports the newly appointed Road Safety Advisory Council, and will support the Council in any way possible if requested to do so, it believes that far more is required to address road safety in South Africa.

Jumo states, “SARF has made the identification and promotion of interventions to fight against road accident-related injuries and deaths one of its highest priorities. At a recent Engineering Civilution Congress, hosted by SARF, a number of recommendations were made, including the State’s obligation to make road safety awareness a public priority. It was identified that the State needs to be made aware of its obligation to take appropriate measures to ensure that parents and children have a basic knowledge about the causes and prevention of road accidents.”

Concluding, “Without reliable data, it is impossible to define the problem and find solutions. That is why we are calling on the Department of Transport and others to assist us in the development of a standardised reporting system that will incorporate and address the needs of all stakeholders. This will require a study to determine the quality of existing data and data-gathering structures and to identify best practices for a standardised/uniformed crash reporting system.”