No need to reinvent the wheel to bring down road death rate

Get traffic police out from behind the bushes and actively fighting law breakers

Thirteen people died in a horrific car smash near Pietermaritzburg on Friday morning. Crushed to mince in a collision between a taxi and a truck.

Grisly incidents such as this are something South Africans have become used to. Last month, 13 people - including nine teachers - were killed in an accident involving a taxi and a bakkie in North West. In August, 14 school children were killed when their school bus plunged into a river near Knysna. In May, eight people died when the car they were travelling in overturned near Butterworth. In March ...

One can keep reeling off the statistics until the bovines come marching into the kraal.

What is most chilling about the carnage on our roads is that we do it in big numbers. We do it almost every other week. And then we just move on.

News bulletins will have it as a major item and then swiftly move along to some Julius Malema antic or service delivery protest . Newspapers will splash it across the front pages and tell moving stories about the victims. And then we move on to Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng or some similar crisis.

Deadly accidents are par for the course.

In two months' time we will go through our annual rite of counting the number of festive season deaths. It is a macabre ritual that we play out over the Christmas and Easter periods in particular. A joyous nation takes to the roads to celebrate the happy times with loved ones in cities and dorpies. But instead of being content with hugs, presents and handshakes, we have to add tears to the occasion.

There have been many scientific explanations for our cavalier attitude to road safety - ranging from our love of speed to drunken driving and a general disregard for rules.

All of the scientific reasons are, of course, true. It is the remedies that must be questioned.

Successive transport ministers have failed to grapple with the fundamental cause of South Africa's high accident rate: the lack of effective law enforcement.

The ever blabbering Sbu Ndebele, one of the most effective individuals in public service, is falling into the same trap as his predecessors by trying to reinvent the wheel.

The minister of transport wants to introduce new laws and regulations to lower the speed limit.

"There are increasing calls and signs that something drastic needs to be done to arrest the current situation. Studies conducted in other countries such as Australia where the speed limit is 110km/h indicate that a reduction in speed limit can save lives," Ndebele said recently.

Now, the rambling Ndebele may have a point about the impact speed has on the ability to react to situations. That is why we have speed limits in the first place.

But enforcement is the issue. South Africans disobey the law because the law is just not enforced.

They will exceed the speed limit in urban areas, skip traffic lights, drive drunk and make illegal stops because they know that the chances of getting caught are minimal.

My personal pet hate is pedestrians. I know this may sound elitist, because most South Africans do not drive cars. But I cannot describe the level to which my blood boils when I have to swerve my little jalopy out of the way to avoid pedestrians who saunter along the road as if their feet were wheels.

If law enforcement agencies made a point of harassing and arresting these transgressors, the high level of pedestrian deaths would decline dramatically.

The same goes for motorists who break speed limits, overload and drive unroadworthy vehicles.

The simple enforcement of existing laws would ensure that red traffic lights are not skipped, smooth tyres are not driven on and - crucially- taxis do not stop where they like.

That, as far as this lowly newspaperman is concerned, is where Ndebele should begin.

He, together with his government colleagues, should ensure that municipal and provincial traffic departments are not revenue collectors but law enforcers.

With our crisis, South Africa cannot afford a situation where uniformed and armed officers hide behind bushes passively waiting for infringements. The country needs them to be actively engaged in fighting law-breakers - on and off the road.

Ndebele should take a lead from the country's most remarkable law enforcement exercise: the banning of smoking in public spaces.

Whereas many asked cynical questions about where the manpower to police the smoking ban would be found, the government resolutely enforced the law and the accompanying regulations. Today clean air is the norm in our country and smokers are treated with scorn and contempt.

Now if only we could do the same with existing traffic laws.