2004 Easter Road Safety Campaign

For the past decade I have stood before all of you and told you my dreams of creating and ensuring safer roads, fewer accidents and no accidents at all if I could help it, and most importantly reducing the high levels of fatalities. 

We have all come a long way today in ensuring this. Every one of us should take responsibility for our actions on the road; every motorist should consider that they are pedestrians first; infrastructure design should be user friendly to avoid accidents and again I reiterate that accidents are avoidable if only each person values their live seriously. 

I always consider how the rest of the world handles the issues of road safety. We went to Australia, to London to the Americas to seek some answers. Recently I sat down with some religious leaders and enquired how is it that during the pilgrimage in Mecca where almost three million people congregate there were less than ten road accidents and no fatalities. It can’t only be the blessing of God but I believe it is the will of the people to stay alive. Again, then my argument to the public is to value your life and divine intervention will play its part. 

We are gathered here today to look at some of our efforts, as the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport, aimed at saving lives and how we have planned to ensure your safety on our roads during the coming weeks. 

Previous records indicate that the Easter period is the busiest for KwaZulu-Natal’s roads. High traffic volumes on the N3 corridor as well as the N2 North and South are expected. The increase in traffic volumes is further expected to rise with 14 April 2004 (Election Day), thus extending the Easter Holiday period. 

We remain committed to reducing deaths on our roads and every effort (i.e.) education, enforcement and engineering aspects have been fully integrated to ensure that the people of the province as well as our visitors are safe. The focus for this year’s campaign is on pedestrian safety, since almost 60% of the statistics account for pedestrian fatalities. Currently three radio adverts in Zulu, English and Afrikaans are being flighted to highlight the importance of pedestrian safety. 

Our Easter Road Safety Plans have been further structured and integrated to support both the United Nations Road Safety week, which runs from 5th to 11th April 2004. The World Health Organisation under the auspices of the United Nations has declared 7^th April 2004, World Health Day on Road Safety. The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport will commemorate this day by holding a Prayer Day at the Kingsmead Cricket Stadium on April 7 commencing at 10h00 under the theme, "Road Safety is no Accident". I would like to take this opportunity to personally invite each one of you to show your commitment to road safety by supporting this event. 

The focus on the concept of self-policing is being given priority to ensure that road users take the responsibility for safer roads and make road safety everybody’s business. This concept is reinforced through our Mpimpa hotline – 086 2211 1010. The aim of this line is ensure that road safety becomes everybody’s business by affording all road users the opportunity of reporting road users that break the law. 

As mentioned earlier, Easter this year coincides with our third democratic elections and this will see traffic volumes and road usage increase dramatically as compared to previous years. As the majority of our people will make use of public transport during this period, we will be specifically targeting all public transport vehicles through the efforts of specialized Public Transport Enforcement Unit. We will also clamp down on drivers of bakkies who use these vehicles to illegally convey passengers. Operation Juggernaut targeting heavy motor vehicles will also be in full force. 

We have just had a very successful Human Rights week-end on our roads with traffic volumes peaking at over 2000 vehicles per hour and no major road crashes reported. Easter, is in essence our December/January holiday period, which is generally about five to six weeks, but now crammed into about eight days with higher than normal volumes of traffic concentrated into shorter periods of time. This year our critical period will start on April 8 until midnight on April 14. Added to this is the fact that many people will possibly be extending their stay in KwaZulu-Natal. 

We will also be supporting the election process. We will be assisting the SAPS at all election venues and will also provide support in areas where there are no traffic police. There are also several voting stations in new areas which will require traffic control. 

These added challenges, is more reason why we require support from all road users to ensure that they do their individual bit to ensure safety on our roads. We also want to encourage all motorists to support our "Day Time Running Lights Campaign" by ensuring that you drive with your headlamps on during the day. 

All traffic officers, from the most junior to the most senior, have been placed on 12 hour duty each day and on 24-hour stand-by as well. Leave will only be granted in exceptional cases. Our administration staff will also be working to support our operational staff and to ensure that all our uniformed staff are out on the roads. Zero Tolerance will apply as usual. 

Our Road Side Courts will be operational at Park Rynie, Umdloti, Cato Ridge and Bergville. I’m also pleased to announce that the Magistrate at Pinetown Magistrate's Court will also be on stand-by for specific serious traffic offences. On Sunday a motorist already felt the sting of one of our roadside courts when he was fined R15 000 and his driving licence was endorsed for travelling at a speed of 180 kilometres per hour in a 120 zone. 

There will be several multi-disciplinary road blocks all around the province together with the SAPS, SANDF, local authority traffic agencies and other enforcement agencies that will target drunk driving, unroadworthy motor vehicles, overloading as well as crime in general. 

DRIVER AWARENESS FOR LONG DISTANCE TAXI ASSOCIATIONS AND TOUR BUS OPERATORS

This programme will be undertaken with all long distance taxi associations and tour bus operators. Aspects regarding vehicle fitness, pre-trip inspections, and the importance of tyres and overloading will be highlighted. 

The KZN Taxi council, the eThekwini Minibus Taxi Forum and the PTEU are also actively involved.  In conjunction with this, members of our Community Road Safety Councils will also undertake taxi rank awareness campaigns. The communities will be reinforcing the message "bring our families safely during the Easter period" to the Public Transport Sector. 

ALCOHOL AWARENESS

The "Sober is Safe" campaign and the "Omela Ngasekhaya" programme will also be undertaken to reinforce safer roads during the Easter Holiday period by reinforcing the messages that drinking and driving/walking is a crime. The "Sober is Safe" campaign will target hotels and pubs whilst the Omela Ngasekhaya programme will take place at taverns throughout the province. 

Again, more pedestrians die on our roads than drivers or passengers. We have thus embarked upon a holistic approach in which we will intensify our efforts to correct pedestrian behaviour, be it jay-walking, drunken walking or any other form of irresponsible behaviour in the same way as we do to drivers. 

In the final analysis, I want to re-emphasize the following:

It is a crime to jaywalk.
It is a crime to drive while under the influence of alcohol.
It is a crime to drive without a licence.
It is a crime to drive recklessly and at high speeds.
It is a crime to drive an un-roadworthy vehicle.
It is a crime to drive an overloaded vehicle.
It is a crime to drive a vehicle and at the same time use a cell phone without a hands free kit.
It is a crime not to wear a seatbelt.
It is a crime to attempt to bribe a traffic officer.
It is a crime to attempt to bribe a testing official. 

I thank you.

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