Transport Minister, Honourable Dipuo Peters has hailed as a resounding success a two-day National Road Safety Summit held on 4 to 5 October 2013 at the Birchwood International Conference Centre in Gauteng under the theme “Together Championing Road Safety 365 days”. The summit was attended about 2000 delegates from all the nine provinces, including MECs responsible for Roads and Transport; and Community Safety and Liaison, CEOs of Transport state owned companies, Chiefs of provincial Traffic Law Enforcement and Management, independent Road Safety experts and councils, transport operators, municipalities, institutions of higher learning and commuter organisations, among others. The two-day Imbizo was an inclusive call for all role players to identify tangible and measurable solutions to make both South Africa’s roads and its road users safer. It was a call for all road users and stakeholders to make meaningful contributions that will assist in the reduction of road fatalities, a decrease in crashes, and a change in road user behaviour, encouraging voluntary compliance to road traffic rules, speeding up the implementation of good road practice and making road safety part of everyday life. The summit also looked at legislative amendments aimed at improving road safety – through adopting the traffic law enforcement code, addressing road infrastructure and encouraging conduct that promotes road safety. In line with the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 campaign, whose objective is to reduce road fatalities by half by the end of the current decade, delegates at the summit thoroughly engaged on the five pillars of road safety and the legal and regulatory framework, namely:Road safety management (covering management of road safety in general; alignment of road safety policies and challenges)Safer roads and mobility (focusing on safer roads, road construction and maintenance and road conditions)Safer vehicles (focusing on the safety of vehicles, vehicle specifications, heavy vehicles, public transport vehicles, learner transport);Safer road users (focusing on road user policies, road user safety, obeying the rules, pedestrians, drivers);Post-crash care (focusing on disaster management, care post-crash, medical care etc.), and Legal and Regulatory framework (focusing on legislation impacting on road safety, synchronising of the National Road Traffic Act, the SANRAL Act, AARTO Act, CBRTA Act and other related and pertinent legislation). Strong recommendations were made by the delegates during deliberations at the Summit, including the following: Commission 1: Road Safety ManagementThe conditions of employment of traffic law enforcement officers need to be reviewed as well as the status of road safety practitioners. There is a need for the standardisation of norms and standards and capacity building for both traffic law enforcement officers and road safety practitioners across the country.It was recommended that a common approach for the recruitment and selection of traffic law enforcement officers should be adopted and that more officers should be recruited as well as road safety practitioners. A recommendation was also made that traffic law enforcement should be applied consistently across the country. Commission 2: Safer roads and mobility Each province should identify the five most hazardous locations and implement remedial measures including engineering, education and enforcement. Road safety education and awareness programmes should be compulsory with the provision of all pedestrian related infrastructure and non-motorised transport assessment and plans to be inclusive of the 1.5m provision on the road reserve to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists. Processes need to be put in place to create a rapid reporting and response system on roads authority level to ensure action and compliance and the timely fixing of pot holes. Commission 3: Safer vehicles Policy and legislation should be developed on the introduction of technology to combat driver fatigue and distraction in goods and passenger vehicles. Minimum standards to be set by the SABS/National Regulator for Compulsory Standards (NRCS) for all public transport vehicles – specifically for learner transport. This must include legislation to compel owners to declare the use of the vehicles when taken for roadworthy tests.Systems should be put in place to expedite the phased implementation of periodic vehicle testing and review the vehicle testing environment and capacity in its entirety – including monitoring of compliance and combating fraud and corruption. Legislation should be revised or introduced to ensure the safety of children in vehicles, including legislation on child restraints and legislation to cover infants between 0 to 3 years of age. Commission 4: Safer road usersIt was recommended that pedestrian infrastructure - overhead bridges, speed calming measures / traffic lights, speed humps, stop streets, rumble strips, traffic circles also be improved. Speed limits in areas with high pedestrian activity should be reduced to 40k/h and the distance between motorists and cyclist be regulated to 1.5 meters. Driving schools should teach learners in their own languages and Traffic Law Enforcement be declared as an essential service and 24 hour operation. Commission 5: Post-crash care A need was expressed to see more collaboration between role players and resources for capturing data on road crashes and creating opportunities for unemployed graduates. Social security services should be aligned with legislation for all role players and the RAF to assist in paying for emergency treatment that is given immediately after a crash. There should be safer pedestrian provisions for national roads near residential areas, such as pedestrian bridges. Legislative and LegalDelegates recommended the development of a specific National Road Safety Act and stiffer penalties for road traffic contraventions as well as periodic testing of motor vehicles. In her closing remarks to delegates, Minister Peters said “The plan we are developing today will inform the Road Safety Strategy 2014 – 2019 and some of the recommendations we are making today can and must be implemented immediately,”. While the actual strategy is being finalised, we can put into action some of the recommendations. Issues such as potholes can be attended to right away without delay.“I’d rather be known as the Minister for pot-holes but I want this problem attended to timeously without delay and assist in saving the lives of our people,” concluded Minister Peters.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:22:11 +0000
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