By Felicity Duncan
The holiday season in South Africa means one thing: danger. Specifically, the danger of road accidents that could cost you and your family your lives.
South Africa’s roads are notoriously dangerous. Every year, thousands of South Africans lose their lives on the country’s roads. In 2016 and 2017, the death toll was over 14,000 a year. Many of the those killed are pedestrians, who run enormous risks walking on a road system that was not designed with those on foot in mind. Many other fatalities involve drivers and passengers making bad choices that cost them their lives.
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So far, this year looks like being one of the more hazardous on record. The Western Cape has already reported an unusually high 83 fatalities for the month of December and the great holiday exodus has barely begun.
Happily, for drivers planning to head down to the coast, there are simple ways to reduce your risk.
- Don’t drink and drive. It’s astonishing that this still needs to be said in 2018 but drinking and driving is extremely dangerous. Drunk drivers kill thousands of people every year, including children and babies, including their own children and babies. If you must drink, don’t drive. Take an Uber, use a designated driver, or drink at home where your commute simply involves falling into bed. Heck, splash out on a limo for the night. Just don’t get drunk and drive home. Be smarter than that.
- Don’t speed. This is something that always strikes me when I’m in South Africa – everyone drives very, very fast. I suspect this is a major reason why so many people die on South African roads. Simply slowing down can save your life, because speed really does kill. Collisions are much more forceful when you’re moving faster and therefore more dangerous (remember, the forces involved in car crashes rise exponentially with rising speed – try this calculator to see how much). And humans can’t really react fast enough to avoid a hazard when the car is travelling at 180kph. Where I lived in the US, the speed limit on the highway was typically around 55mph, or about 85kph. There were 9 traffic deaths per 100,000 people every year in that state, compared to well over 20 in South Africa. Slow down.
- Wear a seatbelt. It’s true that if you’re barreling along at 200kph and hit a truck, there’s not much that’s going to help keep you alive. But in most road accidents, wearing a seatbelt absolutely will help prevent death or serious injury. America’s CDC estimates that seatbelts reduce the risk of death by 45% and the risk of serious injury by 50%. Many people killed on the roads die because they go flying out of the car and get pasted on the tarmac. Wear your seatbelt and make the kids sitting in the back wear theirs.
- Put your babies and toddlers in car seats. Babies and toddlers are very small and light. When a car crashes, they fly around like bullets if they aren’t strapped in. And, because they are small, they can’t use seatbelts. So always, always put your baby or toddler in a car seat. An accident that an adult can walk away from may be fatal to a toddler sitting on the back seat with no car seat.
You can’t do anything about other drivers and their bad behaviour. But you absolutely can take steps to keep yourself and your family safe on the roads. Slow down, strap in, and stay sober. It could save your life.
