A mother is ‘designed and programmed’ to protect her children, so when a mother loses a child in an accident, she is naturally lost in despair. However, Alida Venter turned her tragedy into something positive. Alida lost her son in a head-on collision with a drunk driver a few years ago. After the terrible ordeal, she dedicated her life to road safety, which sparked the idea of a non-profit organisation called ‘Drive More Safely’. The organisation promotes child safety in a vehicle, along with the ‘Take a Break’ driver anti-fatigue campaign, as well as using the ‘Danny Cat’ children’s road safety education programme. And the list goes on, as Alida also campaigns for ‘Project ADWARD’, which is a project to limit deaths on the road.

Alida, Danny Cat and local Public Safety officers, together with the KZN Department of Transport, visited schools in and around Vryheid last week. October has been designated as ‘Transport Month’ by the Department of Transport, with the intention of raising awareness of the important role transport plays in the economy and encouraging all sectors to play a role in creating safer, more accessible transport systems. Alida says that approximately 1500 children under the age of 12 (out of a total of 14,000 people) die in road-related accidents per year, with about 18% being pedestrians. Alida and her organisation aim to lower these fatalities by being actively involved with road safety awareness campaigns. Alida’s campaigning changed South Africa’s Road Safety Act, which now requires children under three years old to be safely restrained in vehicles.
Alida recently received a well-deserved ‘Best Road Safety Organisation 2024 – South Africa; MEA Markets Education & Activism Excellence’ Award. Together with Danny Cat (whom most will remember from back in the day), Alida and her team work tirelessly to keep road-users and more importantly children safe by teaching them about road safety. They also spread awareness about the dangers of not adhering to road rules. Danny Cat is the perfect sassy character to engage with children about road safety, says Alida. She will continue to ‘fight the good fight’, even though she receives no funding from any company or from government. Visit her website www.drivemoresafely.co.za to join the Danny Cat Club or if anyone would like to get involved with her organisation.

ALSO READ: Municipality kicks off transport awareness month with road safety campaign

The news provided to you in this link comes to you from the editorial staff of the Vryheid Herald, a sold newspaper distributed in the Vryheid area.