EVERY crash, major or minor – fender benders – should be reported to the police to ensure there are no gaps in the data collected by the municipality, which informs planning interventions.

This is according to the manager of the Road Safety branch of the eThekwini Transport Authority (ETA) Siphindile Ngidi.

Ngidi’s branch collects and manages traffic and crash data, which helps the ETA to make informed decisions on enforcement, education and engineering.

Ngidi said traffic data is about how many vehicles are in the city, are passing at certain points and the usage of seatbelts, and cellphones whilst driving, among other things.

Crash data, she added, is collected by Road Safety from police stations across Durban and is about vehicles which were involved in an accident, now termed crash.

Twice a week the branch collects crash data from big police stations such as Durban Metro, uMlazi, and Pinetown, whilst at smaller ones it is collected once a week.

Traffic data is used, for example, in instances when new developments are cropping up, such as shopping malls, schools, and restaurants, so that it may be used to inform engeneering interventions around such developments.

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Traffic data is also used to determine the general maintenance of the city’s roads.

“Without understanding the traffic we have at eThekwini it is impossible and difficult to plan because budget is involved,” said Ngidi.

Crash data, on the other hand, enables the municipality to understand various points flagged as high risk areas and the interventions which may be required, explained Ngidi.

Once these interventions have been put in place to make high risk areas safer, assessments are made if these were a success, said Ngidi.

Both traffic and crash data are used to determine whether a road requires traffic calming measures such speed humps.

One of the challenges the Road Safety branch encounters, according to Ngidi, is incomplete data, in particular, crash data, where people do not fully complete the necessary form with all the required details.

“Many people still do not know their new license plates,” said Ngidi.

It is crucial that the form is filled in completely and those doing so should ensure that they are aware of the following:

• The location of the crash
• The time of the crash
• Their ID number
• License plate number
• Details of passenger(s), if one was in the vehicle during the crash
• Details of the third party if one or more vehicles were involved in the crash
• The type of vehicle
• The make of the vehicle
• The model year of the vehicle

An example shared by Ngidi was that a failure to report even fender benders, which results in a gap in the data, could negatively impact a request by communities or their leaders for traffic calming measures at a particular road, which may not have the recorded statistics to back the need for these to be implemented.

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