Interventions sought as trend shows trucks using more municipal roads
“A plan will also be put in place to hold truck and bus owners accountable for the conduct of their drivers on the road even if this warrants legislative amendment.”
The Department of Transport said it was looking at “impactful interventions” that will need to be implemented by all provincial and local traffic authorities to bring down the number of traffic accidents in the country.
Such interventions might include holding truck and bus owners accountable for their drivers’ conduct even if this warrants legislative amendments.
This was after the department met with the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and National Road Safety Steering Committee (NRSSC) to seek ways to prevent accidents such as the recent horror crash near Rosslyn in the north of Pretoria that claimed 15 lives.
Transport minister Fikile Mbalula released a report on the crash on Friday.
Mbalula said an analysis by the RTMC revealed that buses were involved in 18 major crashes, while trucks were involved in 71 major crashes.
He said the analysis was conducted from January 2020 to June 2022.
He said bus crashes claimed 178 people, while 600 suffered various degrees of injuries. Truck crashes claimed 463 lives, while 431 suffered various degrees of injuries.
ALSO READ: 15 dead in ‘horror crash’ on M17
“This is an unsatisfactory situation because we know that road crashes are avoidable if people respect the rules of the road,” said Mbalula.
“It has been observed recently that more trucks are avoiding national and regional routes and using arterial municipal roads.”
Mbalula said the department had noted “horror crashes involving multiple fatalities” happened on arterial municipal roads.
He said the interventions sought would see the NRSSC revise their traffic officer deployment strategy and ensure that arterial routes receive high priority to push heavy vehicles back onto the national and regional routes.
“A plan will also be put in place to hold truck and bus owners accountable for the conduct of their drivers on the road even if this warrants legislative amendment.”
Mbalula said the National Land Transportation Act stipulated that owners had to exercise control over their drivers.
He said where evidence existed that an owner failed in their duties, criminal charges would be brought against them too.
Mbalula said improving the road safety situation in the country required a cycle of planning, executing and evaluating programmes.
“Implementing a continuous cycle of road safety improvement should begin with an assessment of the existing road safety system, followed by the development, execution and evaluation of national and local plans of action by different actors within the system.”
ALSO READ: Driver error to blame for M17 horror crash
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