The challenges of implementing a National Road safety strategy, and progress with overcoming them

Abstract

Paper presented at the 26th Annual Southern African Transport Conference 9 - 12 July 2007 "The challenges of implementing policy?", CSIR International Convention Centre, Pretoria, South Africa. ABSTRACT:The Millennium Development Goals include an undertaking by the African Ministers of Transport to reduce road fatalities and poverty in Africa by half, by 2014. Government also has a commitment to grow the economy by 6% per annum, through the ASGISA program, and also create a safe environment for the FIFA 2010 World Cup events. This is a huge challenge on a continent renowned for poor driver behavior, poor road engineering and condition outside of national routes, and old, un-roadworthy vehicles, leading to high levels of carnage. The cost of crashes in South Africa is around R43 billion annually, with the loss of around 15,000 lives and 7,000 permanent disabling injuries. Legislation and regulation covering South Africa’s roads is comprehensive and compares favourably with other countries in the world. Road Safety Strategies are also published on a regular basis, and include recommendations from the World Health Organisation and World’s Best Practice. However, the deaths and injuries on our roads continue to grow annually, at a rate larger than the increase in traffic volumes. The new National Road Safety 2006 Strategy was published and launched during transport month in October 2006, after substantial consultation with all role players during its development. This presentation will detail the strategic imperatives, and the challenges in implementation. Some of these challenges are caused through the non-compliance and/or lack of resources of the various implementing authorities ie the various levels of government and the Road Traffic Management Corporation, as well as the general acceptance by communities and individuals of poor behavior, particularly the abuse of alcohol, speeding, unsafe overtaking, non-wearing of seat belts, as well as poor levels of enforcement and follow up of fines. It will also briefly discuss the implications of a newly legitimate government, and how that relates to competency. The presentation will seek to define solutions to the challenges of implementing a national road safety policy, and suggest ways of turning the policy into reality to save lives on our roads.