Department of Transport
Driving Change..

A Message from the Minister of Transport

Welcome! This leaflet gives highlights of South Africa’s new road safety strategy, The Road to Safety 2001-2005. The strategy builds on the successes we have scored in the Arrive Alive campaign.

		Between 1997 and 1999 we reduced all road crashes and deaths by an average of 7.5% each year.
		Better still, between 1998 and 1999 pedestrian casualties dropped by 5000 (16%) and deaths by 750 (22%).

Provisional figures for 2000 and 2001 confirm these trends.

We are on the right track. But we still have a mountain to climb. The Road to Safety is all about getting down to the root causes of the carnage on our roads. This means:

• Fixing our road traffic management and regulation systems.
• Wiping out corruption and encouraging law compliance.
• Building partnerships for safety that bring together government, the transport industry, the private sector and organised, motivated communities.

I am certain that we can make further, much more dramatic advances over the next five years and beyond. Let’s all pull together. Zero tolerance, responsibility, action. From today.

The six key problems

1. Many drivers either can’t drive properly or won’t drive responsibly: speeding, moving violations and driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs are still widespread.
2. Many vehicles are unfit for the road.
3. Fraud & corruption are rife in driver and vehicle licensing.
4. Poor fleet maintenance and systematic overloading are common in road freight and public passenger transport.
5. There are serious disparities in road conditions nationally.
6. We still have an unacceptable level of pedestrian casualties.

Action areas:
the road user, the vehicle, the road environment

We want better drivers, safer pedestrians, roadworthy vehicles and a safe, sustainable road network. Here’s how we get there:

Clean up the driver licensing system

• Upgrade all sub-standard Driving Licence Testing Centres (DLTCs).
• Register all driving licence examiners, create formal training courses and re-test their skills every two years.
• Expand the numbers and upgrade the technical capacity of the DLTC Inspectorate; train them in forensic auditing skills to uncover corruption; move to a minimum of four unannounced inspections per DLTC per annum.
• Implement a new, user-friendly computerised learner driver’s licence test—with audio-visual support in all 11 national languages and automated test marking to cut out corruption at stage one of the licensing process.
• Formalise and regulate driving schools Bring in strict accreditation criteria for owners and proper service standards for customers; set tough theoretical and practical qualifications for registered instructors.

Create fit, well trained professional drivers

• Bring in a practical as well as a theoretical test for the two-yearly renewal of the Professional Driver’s Permit (PrDP).
• Tighten up the annual medical check-up for the PrDP.
• Regulate operators to ensure safe working hours and conditions for professional drivers.

Courts—making the punishment fit the crime

• Introduce tough uniform sentencing standards for serious traffic violations, including imprisonment, heavier fines and licence suspensions.
• Look at new sentencing options like community service and/or compulsory retraining courses prior to licence re-testing after suspension.

Vehicle testing—no more coffins on wheels

• Review & reform the entire vehicle testing system - ownership structure, manuals, regulatory procedures, fraud and quality monitoring systems and links to the National Transport Information System (NaTIS).
• Upgrade the skills of vehicle test station (VTS) examiners by bringing in two-yearly re-registration exams, tied to compulsory refresher courses supported by vehicle manufacturers.
• Expand the numbers and upgrade the technical and forensic audit skills of the Vehicle Testing Station Inspectorate; move to a minimum of four unannounced inspections per vehicle test station per annum.
• Investigate introducing a 10-point safety check for all vehicles as a condition for annual re-licensing.
• As the vehicle testing / inspection system stabilises, re-asses phasing in full annual roadworthiness tests for all vehicles over a specified age or kilometrage.

Responsible, accountable fleet operators

• Introduce a standard Operator Code of Practice/Fleet Safety Management System, to include:
  • Stringent Compliance Review System for vehicle maintenance & safety checking;
  • Heavy sanctions for vehicle safety & overloading offences;
  • Introduction of new safety technologies like top speed limiters and tyre safety (anti-blow-out) devices.

Passenger rights / passenger power

• Work with commuters’ organisations to design a Passengers’ Charter clearly laying out bus and taxi commuters’ safety and service standard rights;
• Make it compulsory to display the Charter in all public transport vehicles; give it teeth via a National Road Safety Hotline—with links to the media, enforcement agencies and Inspectorates.

Infrastructure upgrades & community action

• Complete full provincial implementation of the new Pedestrian Facility Guidelines and the new SA Road Safety and Speed Limits Manuals.
• Use crash data to identify all major danger spots on our urban and rural roads; help provinces and municipalities to carry out planned, continuous, upgrade programmes.
• Ensure maximum community participation in safety upgrades by encouraging the creation of democratic Road Safety Forums.
• Rapidly expand rural access road building and maintenance programme; support labour-based road maintenance schemes and emergent construction SMMEs.

Education and mobility with safety

• Complete roll-out of the new outcomes-based Road Safety Education Curriculum, from pre-school to Grade 12.
• Complete distribution of reflective bands to all scholar pedestrians and cyclists, in cooperation with sponsors and the Shova KaLula Bicycle Project.
• Roll out the national and provincial structures of the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA) to ensure effective fine collection and implement the Driver and Operator Points Demerit System.
• Set up the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) to kick-start the process of pooling and coordinating national, provincial and local traffic management resources Improve traffic officer training & professional development; strengthen our data management and statistical analysis capacities with the support of our international partners and public-private partnerships.

Please read the Strategy carefully.

		Spread the message—organise meetings and
		workshops to discuss the strategy in your organisation, industry sector, trade union, local school or community
		Work with provincial and local transport authorities to set up community road safety initiatives.
		Contact us if you require a “toolkit” of key contacts and procedures to help you set up local road safety initiatives.
		Bring us your own—or your community or organisation’s -suggestions for improving road safety…

Front-line contact person:

Ashref Ismael: 012-309 3672