The condition of the road network in South Africa, as well as the high mortality rate, has caused Gary Ronald, head of AA public affairs, to speak out condemning the government’s lack of competent legislation regarding the maintenance of its roadways and citing the countries drivers as the main problem.
By Jordan Hood.
South Africa has one of the worst road fatality tolls in the world with around
14 000 people killed every year, which suggests a gap in the education of drivers as well as unsafe road conditions.
In a statement released on Tuesday Ronald said that “South African roads are fast acquiring a reputation as being some of the most dangerous in the world,” adding “this is partly due to road conditions and vehicle roadworthiness but more so because of road user attitude”.
Ronald outlined a combination of factors including “poor law enforcement, blatant disregard for the law by drivers and the shockingly inept systems that are currently in place when it comes to prosecuting road offenders”
He then called on the government “to put in the same efforts and energy that went into recent smoking legislation into the transport and road fraternities; to be relentless in enforcing rules and to introduce a national zero-tolerance attitude towards road offenders”.
The implementation of stricter regulations on problem drivers the government will surely address the serious road maintenance problem which will reportedly cost billions of Rand to fix. Ronald’s criticism seems entirely justified considering shortfall of hundreds of millions of Rand in uncollected traffic offences.
Adding insult to injury The Star newspaper reported this week that hundreds of drink driving cases could collapse because of the suspension of the breathalyser test, causing even more controversy in a system that increasingly appears to be broken beyond repair.
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