Western Cape Government Interventions Continue to Curb the Carnage on Roads

 

The December 2013 - January 2014 festive season has been one of commendable hard work by our Province and Municipal Traffic Services, Safely Home, and all our road safety partners. As with all our joint road safety efforts, our interventions have continued to be guided by information-based strategy, that continues to yield positive results and save thousands of lives, that would otherwise have been lost on our roads. Valuable lessons from festive seasons past continue to place us in good stead in our continued efforts at reducing the unacceptably high fatalities experienced on a daily basis.

 

Our approach remains focussed, dedicated and informed, using  all available information and emergent trends to guide the decisions we take. Together with the citizens of the Western Cape that continue to prioritise their safety on our roads as well as that of others, we have cut the provincial death rate down by 30.1% since the beginning of 2009. We celebrate this achievement today, and reaffirm our commitment make our roads safer for all that travel on them.

 

The festive season is measured from 1 December 2013 to 31 January 2014.

 

 

 

December 2010 - January 2011:  263

December 2011 - January 2012:  247

December 2012 - January 2013:  230

December 2013 - January 2014:  221

 

 

Following the November launch of Safely Home’s multimedia seatbelt campaign, “It Takes A Second To Save A Life”, as well as the launch of Provincial Traffic’s complementary enforcement plan and other interventions, we began to see some positive emergent trends on our roads, particularly with the number of passenger deaths decreasing compared to previous years at that time. 

 

Prior to the campaign, passenger and driver deaths (vehicle occupants) had overtaken pedestrians as the leading class of fatalities amongst road users; this was a clear indication that seatbelt compliance levels were unacceptably low, often resulting in vehicle collisions being fatal crashes.

 

We are pleased that the campaign was so aptly supported by enforcement practices that saw more and more seatbelt non-compliers being issued with fines and warned against their dangerous behaviour of not buckling-up.

 

What is clear is that we have managed to steadily bring the death rate down in all leading classes of fatalities since we began our efforts years ago, with motorcyclist deaths being the only class to show a marked increase this past festive season.

 

This festive season saw key partnerships playing a decisive role in our efforts to make our roads safer; 30 Traffic students were deployed during this period to assist with planned operational activities, while 12 National Traffic Police Unit officers (From the RTMC) were deployed on the N1 to increase visibility and also to assist with operational activities in the Beaufort West area. Our collective efforts during this past festive season included:

                          -4796 vehicles were stopped to screen drivers for fatigue.

                          -95 of them were parked and made to rest.

 

 

Year-on-year, we continue to see the deaths on the Province’s roads decrease and are confident that through our continued efforts, this trend will no doubt continue with less and less lives being lost so senselessly on the roads. We have decreased road deaths in the province by 30.1% since the beginning of 2009 through our innovative and informed Safely Home approach to road safety. We continue to see noticeable decreases across all major classes of fatalities attesting to these interventions that have specifically targeted them.

 

 

While the numbers are still high, especially pedestrian deaths, the trend is downward and moving in the right direction. Through our Safely Home campaign, we have continued to make a noticeable dent on the carnage on our roads, and thanks to the hard work and dedicated efforts of our traffic officers, our roads are made safer and safer for all the people of the province, and the hundreds of thousands that come to visit us during the festive season.

 

The Western Cape is the only province to offer a 24 hour, seven day a week provincial traffic service, and the results of this dedication show in the changing behaviours experienced on our roads; where lawlessness and a complete disregard for safety reigned supreme, now we find more and more orderly driver behaviour and commitment to not only individual safety, but also the safety of others with whom we share the roads. Together, with the ever-increasing responsible road behaviour by members of the public, we are seeing citizens take responsibility for their lives, as well as the lives of others; and in doing so, increasingly giving life to our motto of “Better Together”.

 

We offer our sincere thanks to all our men and women who spent the season on the roads saving lives, including Provincial Traffic officers, the National Traffic Police Unit, municipal traffic officers and the South African Police Service members who collaborate on road blocks and law enforcement operations. We also extend our condolences to the families and friends of the 221 people that tragically lost their lives on our roads this festive season.