| By Gavin Chait,
on 28 December 2006
|
 As of this morning the Department of Transport has announced that 1 150 people have died so far in traffic accidents since the beginning of the holiday season two weeks ago. The festive season always leaves a terrible after-taste.
One could compare this to actual war-zones: the few hundred who have died in the past year in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict; or even the few thousand who've died in the past year in Iraq. 12 - 14 000 people a year die on South Africa's roads. Yet our roads are no war-zone; they are filled with people happily going on vacation or travelling for work. And they are just as filled with mutilated wreckage and torn bodies. Whose fault is this? The Arrive Alive campaign of the Department of Transport (DoT) claims to be reducing fatalities by 7 - 8% a year, which is a bit like the US government claiming to be winning the war in Iraq. One looks at the numbers and finds it hard to believe. The DoT declares that it saves 270 lives per year (based on previous figures). This, at a total budget of R 50 million a year, means that each life saved costs the state R 185 000. That would mean that saving everyone would cost around R 1.85 billion. But would even that much money be sufficient? The chances are that it wouldn't. Arrive Alive reports on their own success. They are not measured relative to any external yardstick and the type of hard-core road-safety enforcement required is lacking. Gauteng, the province with the second-highest number of annual fatalities and South Africa's economic powerhouse, has recently enjoyed the spectacle of their own police chief, Robert McBride, rolling his car in a drunken accident. Witnesses at the scene were assaulted by police arriving to take their chief to safety and ensure that no-one testifies against him. As in major corruption cases, if those at the top are held to significantly lower standards than the rest of us then it is no wonder Arrive Alive is incapable of ensuring traffic safety. And when that happens everyone loses.
|
Learn about the Spyder Curve
By: Rafiq Phillips on 29 December 2006
I believe a bottom-up approach will be more (cost)effective. Get them while they're young.
» Report this comment to administrator
» Reply to this comment...