In South Africa, road accidents claim an estimated 14 000 lives every year, one of the highest road death rates globally. The country has had a number of road safety campaigns and a succession of Transport Ministers, who have all pledged to end the scourge and the unacceptable human and economic costs it exacts – the yearly economic cost is estimated at between R60-billion and R100-billion.

Road-related deaths and injuries also continue to blot the copybook of many South African corporates, which have made material strides over the past decade in improving operational safety. Indeed, it has become the norm for mining companies, utilities and manufacturers to report that road deaths, rather than direct operational incidents, were the primary cause of death in a financial year.

South Africa’s poor performance in this area also arises in the context of the con- tinent’s poor road safety record. “Africa has one of the highest road deaths and serious injury rates in the world, with 32.2 deaths per 100 000 persons, in contrast to 10.3 deaths per 100 000 persons in high-income countries,” laments South African Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) engineer Randall Cable.

And despite government’s and the private sector’s efforts to curb fatalities, road deaths have, over the past few years, been increasing at a faster rate than that of the overall vehicle population.

Pedestrians alone account for nearly 40% of road fatalities annually, former Transport Minister and current Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele reported at the launch of the Eqstra Think Pedestrian Campaign on April 11.

His successor, Ben Martins, has stated that reducing road fatalities remains a key area of concern and that there is, therefore, a need to extend road safety campaigns throughout the year.

Seasonal Patterns
But certain parts of the year, such as over the Easter and Christmas holiday periods, demand extensive and extra care to caution drivers and road users.

Over these periods, the authorities respond with highly visible traffic policing. From April 5 to 9, 56 roadblocks were set up and 905 motorists were arrested, including 562 for drinking and driving, 226 for speeding and reckless and negligent driving, as well as 117 for other offences. Some 355 vehicles were suspended, including 249 public transport vehicles that were impounded.

But what about the rest of the year and ensuring the safety of citizens who need to travel to work, to school, or university, or who need to do daily shopping and chores?

Cable believes mass media road safety campaigns are too few and far between and also appear relatively unscientific in approach.

“International experience has shown that mass media road safety campaigns that focus on specific target audiences, use specific and appropriate mediums, such as social media, and convey appropriate message formats, can be successful,” he says.

Successful campaigns are typically integrated with on-the-ground activities, such as specific and complementary law-enforcement activities reinforcing the message, and have proven to be successful in changing and sustaining appropriate road user behaviour.

He believes that, for the creation of greater awareness among road users, South Africa needs to engage in a national road safety strategy, whereby all resources are pooled and an integrated approach is adopted.

“Various entities and departments have embarked on road safety initiatives over the years with varying degrees of success and we are still faced with the reality of statistics which tell us that at least 40 people will die on South African roads on a daily basis, which amounts to more than 1 000 people dying each month.”

In other words, road safety still does not receive the priority it deserves. “The country needs an action plan where all stakeholders, private and public, play a meaningful and measureable role,” says Cable.

Martins believes that inadequate attention is focused on road safety regulations in South Africa. “We have to be more stringent in the application of regulations that regulate road transport operations, and law enforcement on issues such as vehicle and driver fitness, driver hours behind the wheel and speed. The implementation of these measures must be regarded as a priority by provincial and local authorities,” he says.

Partnerships and Pledges
Two new public–private initiatives that have been launched in a bid to improve behaviour and reduce road fatalities include the I-Pledge and the Think Pedestrian campaigns.

The national Department of Transport (DoT) and Eqstra Fleet Management & Logistics initiated the Think Pedestrian Campaign in April, while Imperial initiated the campaign in late 2011.

Under the Think Pedestrian banner, the DoT and Eqstra visit various communities that have been targeted as high-risk and hazardous safety areas in KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape. Although the campaign will initially only concentrate on three provinces, there are plans to extend it to all the provinces in the coming years.

“The meetings with the communities have enlightened the Eqstra team: road safety is not something you do for the community but something you engage in with the com-munity,” says Eqstra CEO Jacqui Carr.

Attention is also being given to traffic calming measures, such as installing speed bumps, rumble strips and road signs. By targeting high-risk areas, the partners aim to reduce pedestrian-related fatalities by half by 2020, create awareness and improve road infrastructure in South Africa.

Meanwhile, I-Pledge aims to remind citizens that road safety “starts with every one of us”.

Technology Systems
But there are also some interesting technology solutions being brought to bear on the problem.

One of the more high-profile solutions is being marketed by Discovery Insure, whose CEO, Anton Ossip, believes that changing driver behaviour is critical.

Through the use of its telematics system, DQ-Track, the insurance company has found an innovative way to get people to drive better because, “if people can be more conscious about the risks that are associated with bad driving, we can save thousands of lives”, says Ossip.

Discovery Insure has the vision to encourage and reward better driving. “if we could measure how people drive and reward them for good driving, it would encourage them to change their driving behaviour and handle themselves better on the roads,” he adds.

DQ-Track allows Discovery Insure to under- stand how the vehicle and the driver are performing. The device is installed in the car and measures aspects about the car, such as its speed and how it is used.

“Behaviour is where we need to start changing things – that is what will make a difference in terms of road deaths. There has been a significant change in the driving behaviour of clients that have DQ-Track installed.

“We report to them on a monthly basis on whether their driving is improving or getting worse. This gives the drivers the opportunity to change their driving behaviour. We have noticed that, after a five-month period, there is a 17% improvement in driving scores for most drivers,” says Ossip.

Meanwhile, Eqstra Risk Solutions has also partnered with a global leader to provide online driver training, which is designed to change driver behaviour. Carr notes that the problem lies with the assumption that most people are responsible drivers although poor driver behaviour is the real cause of accidents.

“In support of both the accident management and insurance offerings, Eqstra Risk Solutions has developed a comprehensive driver management program, the only one of its kind on the South African market.

Customers provide Eqstra with a list of drivers with email and cellphone numbers, which are then loaded onto the driver manage- ment system. Drivers are then placed on a driver management program, with regular communications designed to increase road safety awareness and assist in achieving permanent change in driver behaviour over time,” explains Carr.

Content for the program includes statistics, facts and key safety messages designed to provide insight for the driver around improved road safety and better driving habits.

Drivers, through the software, are put through simulated situations and their exact responses and timing are measured to determine their unique training needs.

Based on this assessment, the software allocates training modules, out of a possible 12, for the driver to complete in a bid to reduce future accident claims.

A number of other initiatives are also being pursued by corporates in a bid to deal with what has become a leading cause of employee deaths.

Intelligent Transport Systems
Sanral’s Cable believes intelligent transport systems could also help reduce the death toll, particularly on the country’s major freeways. “Freeway management systems (FMSes) would be ideal because, if we are able to detect, respond to and normalise an incident on a freeway as efficiently as possible, it will not only save significant time and road-user costs, but could also be the determining factor between life or death for those involved in serious freeway crashes.”

Further, Sanral, with its partners, including provincial and municipal road authorities, has initiated the deployment of intelligent transport systems on major freeways in Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town.

“In essence, FMSes use technology to collect real-time traffic information, mainly through the use of CCTV cameras, which is transmitted to a transport management centre, where the information is processed and used to manage the flow of traffic on the freeways.

“Certain FMS operators have the respons-ibility of being on the lookout for incidents, or even potential incidents, and have the road users’ interests at heart when they scan the freeway network, using CCTV cameras with pan tilt and zoom capabilities. The earlier the detection, the faster the response, which mini- mises the negative impacts on traffic flow,” explains Cable.

He also highlights that there are other methods to change driver behaviour that are currently being implemented in South Africa, in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

“Average speed over distance (Asod) entails the use of number-plate recognition technologies to calculate average speed by measuring the time taken to travel a specific measured distance,” he explains.

In the UK, where Asod technologies are much more extensively deployed, there is better compliance with and adherence to posted speed limits in general. Indications are that Asod has, therefore, positively influenced driver behaviour, compelling motorists to adhere to speed limits, whether there is speed law enforcement or not.

Through the use of these technology innovations and systems, South Africa can reduce road accidents and the economic loss each time an accident occurs.

Reports indicate that road accidents in South Africa cost about 1.5% of the gross domestic product each year.

“Some Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) reports put this number far higher – at more than R 100-billion. This impacts on each and every South African, but more specifically on the poor. They are the primary victims of road crashes and the cost of these crashes diverts much-needed funding and fiscal allocations from where they are needed most,” says Cable.

Causes of Accidents
Although the high death toll in South Africa has been attributed to factors such as drunk driving and/or jaywalking, excessive speeding, overloading and unroadworthy vehicles, these all fall under road-user behaviour.

“Poor road-user behaviour, like driving too fast in testing conditions, overtaking when it is not safe to do so or driving an unroadworthy vehicle, is a predetermined decision based on poor judgement. Unfortunately, such behaviour has become the norm.

“The RTMC has reported that approximately 90% of crashes are preceded by some form of road traffic offence or transgression of the law,’’ says Cable.

In addition to poor road-user behaviour, the DoT is also taking on the challenges posed by corruption of traffic officials, which adds to the road safety issue at hand.

“We should also confront the scourge of corrupt traffic officers who solicit bribes and by so doing besmirch the name of all traffic officers. In line with this, we will be paying more attention to the following: the imple- mentation of an administrative road infringement system and capacity building for maintenance at district and municipal level,” says Martins.

It is, however, important to put into context that road safety competes with a hierarchy of social needs. Getting a road safety message across, which effectively changes behaviour for the better, is more challenging when there are other pressing social and survival needs.

However, effective campaigns that further the objectives of road safety education and awareness have a significant role to play in society.

“A reintroduction of basic road safety education in schools will go a long way towards changing the behaviour of future generations,” says Cable.

In addition to educating and making people more aware about road safety, decreasing the speed limit has been considered as a solution to help decrease the incidence of accidents and reduce the number of fatalities.

Carr says that decreasing the speed limit will be a viable and effective alternative. “Road users would have a faster reaction time in the event of an accident. People are more conscious and aware of what they are doing.”

A report conducted by Arrive Alive found that a decrease of 1 km/h in the mean, or average, vehicle speed in rural areas resulted in a decrease of nine fatal accidents and 120 total accidents a month. This meant that 12 500 lives were saved, as a result of 140 000 fewer accidents.

The report also notes that, when the speed limit was lower, there were also very high levels of self-discipline and self-regulation among South African road users, accom- panied by a high level of law enforcement.

Cable argues that a reduction in the speed limit is not necessarily an answer to all South Africa’s road safety problems, and a reduction in the speed limit alone does not automatically imply a reduction in operating speeds. It is important to understand the different types of speeds to be considered.

The design speed refers to the speed considered and factored into the elements of the road design, such as the curvature of the road or stopping-sight distance. The posted speed limit, which is enforceable, should not be higher than the design speed. The operating speed is the speed at which one travels on the road and is generally calculated as the 85th percentile speed, which is the speed at which 85% of road users feel most comfortable travelling.

“A road that has a specific design speed should have a very similar posted speed limit and corresponding operating speed. There is strong correlation between the design speed, the posted speed and the operating speed. Therefore, changing the posted speed limit without considering the speed for which the road was designed and the corresponding operating speed does not make sense. It could, in fact, adversely impact on road safety,” explains Cable.

This will result in a situation where the roads will have reduced and inappropriate posted speed limits that are not aligned with the speed for which they were designed.

“Motorists are, therefore, less likely to comply with such posted speed limits and exceed the posted speed limit, owing to higher operating speeds that feel more natural. This, unfortunately, contributes to a culture of noncompliance and disregard for the law, as the law is deemed unfair,” concludes Cable.