WORLDVIEW: SA’s 17,000 annual road deaths – time for UK-style roadworthies

Car accidents are a particular bugbear of mine. Maybe it's because of twice being driven into in Johannesburg – once while parked at a petrol bowser, the other by a Congolese license-less and insurance free jumper of a red robot..So I've been paying attention to a UK system that works efficiently. It's always rush hour on British roads. But there are very few breakdowns, because every car has to pass an annual roadworthy test (called the MOT), keeping infirm vehicles off the roads and the traffic flowing. Reading Biznews colleague Chris Bateman's assessment of the SA situation suggests something similar is long overdue..Chris writes: "Half of all vehicles on South African roads are unroadworthy and more than 17,000 people are killed in road accidents annually. That costs the economy nearly R60 billion a year. Last week's shutting down of 24 non-compliant vehicle testing stations in Gauteng is a portentous start..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.You have one of the highest chances in the world of having an accident on South Africa's roads – and if you die (of any unnatural cause in Gauteng), your body could also end up being dissected by a cleaner or driver in the province's forensic health department..That also emerged last week when Director General of the Health Department, Malebona "Precious" Matsoso briefed Parliament's Health Portfolio Committee about an ongoing strike by forensic staff in Gauteng..So, from sitting behind the wheel to lying stone-dead in a mortuary, Gauteng's dysfunctional departments will ensure your relatives live a legal and bureaucratic nightmare once you're gone..Fewer than 35% of South Africans have any form of car insurance. Besides poverty, it's down to a combination of staff shortages, (we're short of 10,000 traffic officers nationally), dysfunctional and corrupt vehicle testing stations, and the lack of forensic pathologists forcing unskilled and untrained mortuary staff to do post mortems..The word dysfunction crops up everywhere. Matsoso says when her department inherited forensic services from the relatively-efficient South African Police in 2006, (in all but the Western and Eastern Cape), there was no transfer of hierarchal structure..Pathologists and cleaners were lumped together in a flatly structured Health HR department. Surprise, surprise; qualified pathologists now sign off death certificates on PM's conducted by cleaners and drivers who over the years have become pretty nifty with the scalpel..From skills transfer to data transfer; the Road Traffic Management Corporation has lost over 20 years of statistical data. They were moving data from one server to another and nobody thought of backing up. Because of mismanagement and corruption, it ran at a R41 million deficit five years ago (no update available)..Now we have huge gaps in our road statistics, never mind being unable to correlate which vehicle defects contribute to how many road accidents, regardless of fatalities. It's estimated that 15% of road traffic accidents are caused by defective vehicles, most of these cars involved being 10 years and older..Transport-related accidents are the third leading cause of unnatural death..To back up the vehicle testing centre corruption assertion; in November, 2008, over 10,000 vehicles were marked for recall for roadworthy testing by the Gauteng Department of Community Safety after a Lenasia South Vehicle testing station owner was found to have issued a roadworthy certificate to an unrepaired, badly damaged car..Then, in a December 2013 six-day Gauteng traffic blitz, 450 vehicles were pulled off the roads and 8,755 fines issued for various violations..Bottom line? If you can afford the Gautrain, take it!".That's a suggestion Joburgers are already taking Chris. I used the Gautrain a few times when in Johannesburg earlier this month. Even outside of peak periods, it was standing room only. Gautrain has some witty catch phrases which has probably helped boost usage. But you get the feeling that the issue Chris writes about is an even better marketing vehicle.

WORLDVIEW: SA’s 17,000 annual road deaths – time for UK-style roadworthies

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