Holidaymakers have started making way to their respective destinations for the festive season. With about 20,000 vehicles expected to use the N3 towards the KwaZulu-Natal area every day, starting today, and about 30,000 from Saturday, N3 Toll Concession (N3TC) will have its hands full keeping everyone safe.
Although the number of car crashes has increased by 12.5% on the busy Durban route, road safety measures implemented by N3TC have resulted in a significant decrease in fatalities.
N3TC has recorded 999 car crashes so far this year which resulted in 88 fatalities, a huge decrease compared to 134 in 2017.
According to N3TC’s Miles le Roux, over 70% of light motor vehicle crashes and 80% in heavy vehicles accidents were attributed to human error.
“The guy behind the wheel is responsible for 70% of the problem. The car is about 12%,” said Le Roux adding that fatigue is a big issue.
About 26% of the crashes are due to the vehicles leaving the road, 19% are due to the cars rolling and over 16% are head-on collisions which, according to Le Roux are all human errors.
“Those are nearly 60% of all the crashes. If we could deal with that, we could reduce our crashes substantially.
“Vehicles rolling [and] vehicles leaving the road: that’s about speed, that’s about people falling asleep behind the wheel.”
He said they had tried different methods to lower the number of crashes, especially with heavy vehicles.
N3TC has taken extra measures to further bolster the safety of its road users.
Route Control Centre
Based near Harrismith, the Route Control Centre is used to monitor the N3, from assisting stranded motorists to highlighting hotspots.
The official at the centre monitors the route and informs route patrol services of incidents.
It is also used to monitor the weather and a communication is sent out to road users when there is fog or heavy winds.
Route Incident Management System
Through this service, patrollers have attended to more than 764 crashes in 2018, removed 6902 objects from the road as well as 2189 stray animals and covered over 1.4million kilometres. They have also assisted 262 motorists with fuel.
Road inspections
N3TC engineers continuously maintain the route, checking and repairing things that could result in accidents such as the visibility of signage and markings, condition of the road, fencing and grass, among others.
Vehicle checks
Vehicles are randomly checked for roadworthiness along the route. The checks include condition of tyres, among others.
Mobile brake tester
Cars are stopped randomly to test their braking system. If the car fails to meet the requirements it gets impounded.
“The advantage of the mobile brake tester is that it’s able to move from one place to another. So on the N3 we’re really blessed to have this machine,” said Road Incident Management System (Rims) manager Praveen Sunderlall.
Wellness programme
Drivers are stopped along the N3 for random health screenings to assist drivers who may be unaware of their health issues. This is done to prevent drivers from suffering heart attacks behind the wheel, which could cause incidents.
“If you’re on HIV-antiretroviral treatment, one of the side effects is fatigue and a lot of [truck] drivers are taking antiretrovirals, they eat a poor diet and that encourages fatigue. So we’re trying to help our drivers in our wellness programme to eat better,” said Le Roux.
This article was paid for by N3 Toll Concessions.
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