Is lack of road safety a national crisis?
It is. We are losing around 13,500 people on our roads every year, around 35 deaths a day. In 2015 road crashes were costing the country R143bn a year. If you extrapolate that eight years down the line and add for inflation you're looking at R200bn.
How does this compare with other countries?
The UK with a higher population has five deaths a day on their roads. Australia and the UK's annual death figures are what our festive season statistics are.
Given our circumstances is it fair to compare our situation with theirs?
Yes, because it's about driver and pedestrian behaviour. To deal with that you need education about road safety in schools all the way through from primary school level, and for those not at school, road safety awareness campaigns that target driver behaviour. And better enforcement. These are things they're getting right and we are not.
Will anything stop the carnage as long as we have so many trucks on the road?
Why blame trucks? The majority of fatal crashes involve passenger vehicles, not trucks, not taxis.
Given the criminally reckless behaviour of many truck drivers and the high number of crashes that do involve trucks, surely fewer trucks would make our roads safer?
There are crashes that involve trucks, no question, and there is lawlessness that happens among truck drivers. Similarly there is lawlessness by drivers of passenger vehicles. But whether it's trucks, passenger vehicles or taxis, the question is, who is policing that behaviour? Over the Easter weekend or the year-end festive period you have this intensive traffic law enforcement, and for 49 weeks of the year nothing. That's not how you change driver behaviour. You can't be surprised when over a three-week period you have this carnage. We're doing nothing to change driver behaviour, that's the problem.
Are there any short-term solutions?
No.
More proactive communication by the department of transport with road users?
Of what nature?
Sending them warnings about weather conditions and so on via social media?
That would absolutely aid in dealing with part of the problem.
Couldn't it have prevented the horror Hilton pile up on the N3?
It certainly would have helped. But how many were killed in that collision? Six. Over a one-week period in which 225 people died, 90% of the other 219 people died as a result of poor driver behaviour. Overtaking on solid white lines, not wearing seat belts, using mobile phones while driving, being drunk while driving. Between 8% and 15% of people stopped for drunk driving are prosecuted. So the issue is driver behaviour.
Wouldn't an electronic system for road users to report dangerous drivers make a difference?
If you're able to very quickly deploy somebody to go and arrest them. There are provincial control rooms but driver behaviour is not being policed.
Lack of resources?
It's not only about manpower, it's how it's deployed. Having 10 traffic law enforcers at a roadblock checking for expired licence disks is not promoting road safety.
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