SPEECH BY KWAZULU-NATAL MINISTER OF TRANSPORT, MR S'BU NDEBELE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE SUMMER HOLIDAY TRAFFIC CAMPAIGN

30 November 1998, Umdloti

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending the launch of our holiday season traffic campaign. Tomorrow, 1 December officially heralds the start of the festive season. Schools will soon close their doors for the year and businesses are preparing to shut down. Everyone is gearing up to celebrate Christmas and the start of the New Year, and to relax and enjoy the holidays.

But for us in the Department of Transport and the road safety fraternity, the long summer holiday looms before us. While everything else grinds to a halt, we step into top gear for the usual onslaught of holiday traffic. The influx of tourists into the province is always welcome but the annual trek to South Africa's holiday Mecca means another spell of slaughter on our roads.

Since 1995, we have worked to develop a comprehensive road safety strategy for KwaZulu-Natal This has now evolved into the Asiphephe (Let us be Safe) Project - a long-term, sustained programme aimed at modifying driver behaviour through enforcement and education. Already we have achieved a 25% reduction in road fatalities in KwaZulu-Natal compared to the 5% national reduction.

Although we have made significant progress in achieving a lower fatality rate, road deaths, serious injuries and economic losses from motor vehicle crashes are still too high. During the festive season last year, 186 people died, compared to 214 who were killed during the 1996-97 summer holiday period. While we welcomed the reduction, it still means that 186 people died. When one considers the trauma suffered by the families of these 186 people, especially during Christmas time, this reduction is a small victory.

We dwell under no illusions and we know that there will still be a number of road deaths this year. But we will go all out to ensure that there is a further reduction this year and that fewer families have to endure such extreme grief and trauma. We will continue our zero tolerance approach for traffic offences and ensure that those who endanger the lives of other road users receive no mercy.

There is a mass hysteria about crime in this country. But the single biggest cause of violent death and serious injury in South Africa is road crashes. Most of these crashes result from the commission of one or other road crime. Yet, infringements of road laws are still not considered to be a big deal and people worry more about getting caught speeding or drinking and driving rather than the consequences of committing these crimes.

We will ensure that breaking road laws is a big deal and that drivers worry about it a great deal more than they do now. Through co-ordinated law enforcement, every traffic agency in the province will be on active duty to police our road network during the festive season. Critical offences such as drunk and dangerous driving, driving over the prescribed speed limit and unlicensed drivers will be targeted through rampant enforcement operations and multi-jurisdictional roadblocks.

The Booze Buses travel the length and breath of the province conducting random roadblocks and will be regular features on arterial routes and within urban limits during this period. As the National Minister of Transport, Mr Mac Maharaj announced last week, breath alcohol readings obtained from the evidentiary breathalyser are now admissible in court. The acceptance of the breathalyser after a three year wrangle is a triumph for our law enforcement programme. KwaZulu-Natal has gained a reputation for its tough approach to drinking and driving and this year, you can count on the fact that wherever you go, you will encounter roadblocks. If you're over the limit,, you will be arrested on the spot, charged and locked up until you are taken to court. The maximum penalty for drinking and driving is R120 000 and / or six months imprisonment. I encourage people who will be going to Christmas parties or celebrating over the festive season to ensure that they have designated drivers to avoid wasting their bonuses or spending an unexpected holiday courtesy of the departments of Safety and Security and Correctional Services.

Our major focus this year is on speeding. Over 70% of road crashes in this province is caused by speeding and for this reason, we launched a four month bench-marking project in October which has seen speed enforcement increase tenfold. The rate of driving over the speed limit is unacceptably high and tends to catapult over the holiday season when visitors come to our province.

Conventional speed cameras are being used, some of them with cassettes which produce 800 violations on a single spool. There the possibility of a laser system, which is presently undergoing testing, being introduced shortly. This camera will produce 36 000 violations at a time, and can be used at any location, on any of the roads of the province. The number of sub-surface loops in the province is also being tripled to ensure a wide range of sites is available for the operation, and these are all placed at sites of high crash incidence, where loss of life has occurred.

Traffic officers will also be using new technological methods of speed enforcement including in-car video recorders and speed detectors. This latest equipment is fitted in both marked and unmarked vehicles. This equipment is able to record aggressive and dangerous driving and can be used as evidence in a court of law. There has been some public criticism of speed trapping in construction sites. During the past month there have been at least six serious crashes in road works on the N3 freeway, including the death of two workers outside Pietermaritzburg in October. For this reason, cameras are being used at construction sites, to force drivers to slow down to reasonable levels in these dangerous areas. The heavy levels of enforcement are supported by a mass media campaign, with emotive advertising on radio and TV, and eighty supporting billboards with the message "Don't fool yourself, Speed Kills".

Creative systems are being introduced for the collection of fines. Telephone operators will contact offenders and request payment. This will be followed up by issues of summons and warrants to ensure that our dictum that "you can run, but you cannot hide" becomes a reality.

Camera operations in other parts of the world have led to substantial changes in driver attitudes and behaviour. Cameras record offenders regardless of their circumstances - luxury vehicles, heavy vehicles, taxis and buses, holiday makers or workers. Nobody can influence the camera operation, or be tempted to encourage the traffic officer to turn a blind eye.

Already, over 50 000 photographs of speeding motorists have been taken. This is about 20% more than the number taken for the whole of 1997. These fines are being processed and notices are being sent out as I speak here today. I would therefore like to warn drivers who use our roads to practice Formula One racing that they will be receiving unexpected Christmas gifts in the mail if they dare to drive over the speed limit in this province.

By the end of January, we expect that approximately 300 000 speed fines will be generated in KwaZulu-Natal. But we are hoping to be proved wrong and that drivers will display some maturity and responsibility on the roads. Through this ground-breaking campaign, during which we are testing our Trafman and NaTis systems, we are aiming to produce a model to be used countrywide in speed reduction operations.

The National Arrive Alive campaign has allocated an additional R3.8 million to KwaZulu-Natal for the summer holiday project. This will strengthen the budget allocated by the Asiphephe Project to the holiday campaign which will be used for enforcement equipment, communications and overtime for traffic officers.

The extra allocation for overtime will allow us to have more traffic officers on the road and more enforcement operations than initially planned. Road staff will be supported by air patrols during periods of high traffic volumes along major routes. Help Centres will operate along the N2 and N3. These centres offer emergency services and enable emergency services to respond more rapidly to crash scenes. We also encourage motorists to make use of the safety stops and to take breaks on long journeys to avoid fatigue while driving.

In this 60th year of operation of the KwaZulu-Natal Road Traffic Inspectorate, we are hoping to minimise unnecessary loss of life on our roads. That would be the most fitting tribute to 60 years of service excellence and dedication to saving lives. I appeal to everyone who gets behind the wheel this festive season to make a concerted effort to obey the law and to support our effort to reduce road deaths. Most of all, enjoy this special season and all that our province has to offer, and be safe.

I thank you.

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