The South African Road Federation (SARF) has added its voice to the Transport Minister’s disappointment at the high rate of crashes and fatalities experienced during this past Easter weekend.

“We have to agree that these numbers are simply unacceptable and the statistics show that most road crashes are a direct result of human conduct,” says Innocent Jumo, president of SARF. “To put it in context, the number of deaths on our roads this Easter is equivalent to two Germanwings flight crashes, and yet we’re still not hearing enough voices in support of road safety,” he adds.

The Department of Transport reiterated that the road traffic safety fraternity had been out in full force during this challenging period, which coincided with the end of the month, school holidays and various pilgrimages.

Despite the heaviest law enforcement presence on our roads as, confirmed by Willis Mchunu, KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport and Community Safety, there was still a significant increase in the number of road fatalities compared to the same period last year.

In KwaZulu-Natal more than 22 000 cars were stopped, 4 678 transgressions were recorded, 400 people were charged with driving without a valid driver’s licence.

The Western Cape’s preliminary report showed 27 fatalities, 13 of which were pedestrians. In the Western Cape, 53 arrests were made for driving under the influence, 235 speeding offences were recorded, and 254 fines for traffic violations were issued.

State of our roads not the core of the problem

SARF says that the state of our roads does play its part in impacting on road safety, but that current statistics show that this does not really lie at the core of our challenges.

“While engineers designing roads can – and should – take considerable measures to minimise risks for future road users, these are rendered inconsequential by driver negligence and recklessness,” says Jumo. “Stringent law enforcement also plays a major role, but to get to the heart of the problem, we need to start at the beginning.”

Jumo has again stressed the importance of education of the traffic rules. “SARF believes that we need to start introducing road safety awareness within our school curriculums, because we need to change the attitude and culture of our drivers from a young age,” he adds.

SARF has also reiterated its support to the Department of Transport, to change driver attitudes, root out corruption at Driver Learner Testing Centres and assist the law enforcement fraternity wherever possible.

“We agree wholeheartedly with the Minister’s sentiments that enough is enough,” says Jumo. “We must do absolutely everything in our power to put an end to this unnecessary and avoidable carnage,” he concluded.