Road safety addressed at World Remembrance Day for Road Traffic Victims

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Road Safety and Arrive Alive Blog would like to share some of the comments made by Mr Jeff Radebe, Minister of Transport, at the World Remembrance Day event held in Soweto yesterday. He commented as follows on the Festive Season campaign and on Arrive Alive:
FESTIVE SEASON CAMPAIGN
Ladies and gentlemen, this brings me to an important issue of the festive season which is synonymous with high road traffic volumes as holidaymakers, scholars, tourists, industry workers and religious groups will be making their way to various holiday destinations. For the period 01 December 2007 to 06 January 2008 the number of fatalities was 1416.

To bolster our interventions my department through the Road Safety Strategy has identified clusters of projects necessary for the enhancement of road traffic safety. These include reduction of fatalities and serious injuries throughout South Africa and improved deployment of traffic personnel, particularly in hazardous locations – where the highest concentration of crashes take place.

Through the RTMC’s Rolling Enforcement strategy we aim to deploy technology to increase performance rates of officers and encourage compliance as well as improvement in reporting for all crashes. As we tighten the bolts and get to grips with the heart of the problem, law enforcement authorities will make sure that more drivers and vehicles are legally registered and licensed to ensure compliance rates of 95% by 2010. No doubt there has to be a decrease in the number of un-roadworthy and unlicensed vehicles to improve safety levels.

ARRIVE ALIVE
Ladies and gentlemen, in order for us to combat the unacceptable traffic safety situation in South Africa, as Government, we launched the Arrive Alive campaign in October 1997. The Arrive Alive campaign is now in its 10th year. It has enabled us to execute joint law enforcement and communication activities in a more focused and cost-effective manner during the period. The Arrive Alive campaign is now a year-round campaign and has been a permanent feature for road safety. All law enforcement and communication programmes undertaken at national, provincial and metropolitan/local levels formed part of the Arrive Alive campaign.
Arrive Alive is clearly a delimited rolling tactical programme designed to achieve effective practical cooperation between the three spheres of Government in ongoing road traffic and road safety management, day-to -day enforcement and quality control, linked to innovative efforts to secure local media, business and community participation.

In linking communication and law enforcement in the long term, systematic educational interventions offer the best prospect for road user behaviour change. In the short-term resources must be concentrated on sharply changing people’s perceptions of what will happen to them if they transgress.
The campaign has since its inception emphasized the high likelihood for detection and punishment and the cost of human life. It is therefore proper that before I leave the podium I should remind you of the following Arrive Alive safety tips:

• Buckle up as seatbelts save lives;
• Slow down as driving too fast is a factor in 75% of fatal crashes;
• Be patient as a decrease of 10% in speed reduces fatal crashes by 40%;
• Cross where it is safe to do so and wear bright clothes at night;
• Sober up as drunk driving leads to fatal crashes;
• When tired rest every 2 hours or every 200 kilometres; and
• Service and maintain your vehicle properly.

Road safety begins with you let us all Arrive Alive!

Visit the Arrive Alive Website for the full version of the speech.