Pretoria - Lifting the national lockdown may have been beneficial in getting the economy going again, but it has also lifted the number of road fatalities taking place on South Africa’s national roads.
It was for this reason that the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) said it was continuing with its educational road awareness campaigns, one sector at a time. Northern regional manager for Sanral Progress Hlahla said although the country’s roads saw a break as a result of the lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the reopening of the economy had shown a worrying trend of increased road deaths.
“We are concerned because we think the number of road fatalities should be much lower as we have some of the best roads in Africa ... While the condition of the vehicle plays a big role, as some vehicles we find are either unroadworthy, with breaks and tyres being worn out, to a large extent the behaviour of the driver is an even bigger concern,” he said.
Driver fatigue, people using cellphones, speeding and ignoring road signs were just some of the incidents that Hlahla said they were trying to curb.
“We’re hoping that if we can educate drivers and road users, whether they are motorists, truck drivers or motorcycle riders, we can somehow influence their behaviour and hopefully see a decrease in fatalities due to unnecessary negligence.”
Hlahla said currently the country was losing as many as 14 000 people to road accidents every year and they were hoping educational initiatives would help bring that number down as road safety formed part of the company’s Horizon 2030 strategy.
Launched in November 2017, Horizon 2030 is a long-term plan for Sanral which articulates its vision, strategic and tactical interventions needed to deliver on its mandate, focusing on roads, stakeholders, mobility and road safety.
And with the weekend’s initiative under the theme “Motorcyclists matter on our roads”, Hlahla said they were closing off Transport Month with a motorcycle safety awareness event to promote road safety and start preparations for the festive season.
About 100 bikers from across the city participated in the mass ride from the Sanral offices to the Zwartkops Raceway, and closed off with safety training to teach drivers about defensive driving, among other things.
Hlahla’s sentiments were supported by motorcycle rider Sifiso Themba, who said he realised that not only were there a lot of motorcycle accidents taking place, but also that his fellow riders on the road did not have the skills to fully manage their bikes.
“For most bike owners it’s about the lifestyle, and not necessarily the skill of riding the bike, hence I came up with the saying ‘biking is a lifestyle and riding is a skill’ ...
“It’s important to understand the kind of machine you have, and we need bikers to not only respect the bike but understand the environment and take care of themselves so they can ride to go back home.”
Morongoa Mahope, who has been a rider since 2013, said she had lost a few friends on the roads, mostly due to inconsiderate road users, but at other times because the rider panicked or did not know how to handle the bike in different environments.
As a result, Mahope said she hoped awareness initiatives that assisted riders and shared knowledge became a regular feature.
Pretoria News