The Road Traffic Management Corporation’s (RTMC) latest State of Road Safety report, published at the end of May, revealed that the Gauteng province was responsible for 58% of the 276,000 speeding violations issued in South Africa between January and December 2022.
Moreover, 11,000 drivers were arrested across the country for driving under the influence of alcohol during the same period.
The report also indicated the alarming statistic that 12,436 people died on local roads last year, only 105 deaths lower than in 2021, and of these fatalities 5,347 (43%) were pedestrians.
“Since 2013, 126,546 people have died on our country’s roads. This is unacceptable and tragic, and while the RTMC notes that efforts have been made to improve the road safety environment, these are clearly not enough as our fatality rate only declines slightly year-on-year,” said the Automobile Association.
“Much more focus should be placed on road safety, especially by the RTMC, than what is currently being done.”
Funding remains a challenge
The AA said it is concerned about the RTMC’s recent announcement that funding for road safety “remains a challenge” and that it is “engaging the private sector” for collaboration on the implementation of road safety initiatives.
“In the context of the billions of Rands road crashes and fatalities cost the economy annually, and the heavy toll these deaths exact on the families of the deceased, the RTMC is duty-bound to find a better solution than its stated efforts,” said the AA.
“The RTMC is the lead agency responsible for road safety in South Africa, and its leadership enjoys significant salaries and bonuses annually. Yet our country’s road safety remains a massive problem and there doesn’t appear to be any progress in substantially decreasing the annual number of fatal crashes or fatalities.”
A report from Australia’s Compare the Market determined that South African drivers cause the highest number of deadly car crashes of any country in the world, regardless of their gender.
The RTMC itself said there are still opportunities for “better coordination of effort towards road safety to realize greater impact” but this has not been addressed as a matter of urgency, according to the AA.
It is also unclear from the RTMC’s data how many of the speeding violations from 2022 were paid and how many of the arrested drunk drivers ended up being prosecuted.
“Our country has a culture of driving with impunity where drivers regularly flout the law because of a lack of consequences,” said the AA.
“Speeding, drunk driving, and texting while driving are commonplace because there is simply not enough law enforcement to curb it.”
Given the high road death rate in the country, seasonal traffic law enforcement actions such as during the Easter holidays are not enough, as driver behaviour won’t change over that four-week period if they are allowed to do as they wish for the rest of the year.
“We again call on the Department of Transport to urgently implement the recommendations of the 2019 Traffic Law Enforcement Review Committee which, among other interventions, called for the number of traffic law enforcers in the country to be doubled,” the AA said.
“We maintain that our country is in serious need of proper traffic law enforcement intervention, and a substantial increase in road safety funding. Unless these two issues are dealt with, our country’s abysmal road safety situation will never improve.”
Keyword: 1 province is behind 58% of all speeding tickets in South Africa – and other alarming statistics