The Minister of Transport, Fikile Mbalula, released road stats for the festive season this month(January) for the period 1 December 2022 – 11 January 2023. Despite the fact road crashes were 13,9% down on the comparative 2021 period, 1 451 people still tragically lost their lives.
Ferose Oaten, Chairperson of the Vehicle Testing Association (VTA), a proud association of the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), says it is appropriate to ponder on the causes of these accidents.
According to The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) Crash Report of 2021, human behaviour makes up 85% of the causes of crashes, and vehicle factors only a small percentage of just 5%. Tyres bursting prior to the crash account for half of these vehicle factors. “However,” she notes, “in major crashes, where more than 5 people died, vehicle factors as a contributory factor, rise to 13%.”
According to the same report, a study published in 2016 establishes the cost of crashes to be R142.6bn for 2015, with an RTMC estimation for 2021 being R188.3bn. “To put that number in perspective that was 3.98% of the GDP for 2021,” she says. The costs included are human casualty costs and vehicle repair costs. Oaten says while the loss of life should never be minimised, a focus on vehicle safety would render a savings of R9.51bn per year.
Loss of life would be reduced by between 5% and 13%, which would have amounted to 130 lives over the festive season and 1125 lives throughout the year. (Based on 12 500 deaths in 2021).
Oaten who is also the Chairperson of the CITA Regional Advisory Group (RAG) Africa that hosted the CITA RAG Africa Conference in Cape Town at the end of 2022 says a great deal of discussion centred around vehicle inspection controls. Julian Pillay, national director of VTA, called on the Minister of Transport to urgently set a date for the implementation of Periodic testing of vehicles which has been on the cards for a number of years now.
“There are so many examples in the world where the implementation of vehicle inspection controls have not only made a positive impact on road safety and reduced road fatalities, but also positively changed the culture of road safety by impacting driver consciousness and contientiousness,” he said.
Jakkie Oliver, CEO of the RMI says that the organisation will be renewing its efforts this year to engage with Government on addressing the urgent issue of more frequent vehicle testing.
