Abstract:
Globally, it is estimated that a fatal or serious car accident happens every six
seconds; thus, declaring car accidents as a global epidemic. These car accidents
are classified as either: driver related, vehicle related or environmentally related.
Vehicle related factors are those that are concerned with the road-fitness of vehicles
or otherwise known as the roadworthiness of a vehicle. The poor roadworthiness of
vehicles using the South African roads is mainly the cause of four main contributing
factors which are: poor visibility of vehicles, poor braking systems, tire failure and
over-weight cargo. The ultimate goal of this project is to develop possible solutions
to the problem of poor roadworthiness in South Africa, whilst considering the
utilization of currently established infrastructure, the financial implications and the
overall travelling time of travelers on the national roads of South Africa. The
document includes research that was conducted on the testing and evaluation of
roadworthiness in the United Kingdom and Japan as well as on local grounds. A
possible three solutions were generated and developed that would: be able to solve
the poor roadworthiness problem, be able to adjust to the current philosophies of
South African road users, as well as add to the global competiveness of the South
African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL). These solutions were then tested
for feasibility, against one another, in a decision matrix where the most feasible
solution was determined. The most feasible solution was further investigated, by
means of simulation modeling and the utilization of the Queuing Theory, to justify
the unconvincing rank of feasible solutions that were identified during the decision
matrix evaluation. Safer roads are the responsibility of all South African citizens, and
engineers should continuously try to design and developed new solutions to the
problem of poor roadworthiness in South Africa and thus, indirectly solve the
problem of poor road safety.
