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| Wayne Duvenage, chief executive at Avis. |
Avis' rental vehicles run millions of kilometres a year, so when CE, Wayne Duvenage lists seven issues to tackle to make SA's roads saver, Weekend Witness we should listen to the man.
As he points out, South Africa’s speed limits are safe and are not the issue here. We need to tackle these real issues below to reduce the number of dead or injured motorists and passengers: 1 Tackle lawlessness on the roads with zero tolerance. This involves not only the general disregard for the rules of the road, but also matters such as unroadworthy vehicles, overloaded and unlicensed vehicles, unlicensed drivers and motorists under the influence of alcohol. All of these interventions require well trained and incorruptible manpower and resources.
2 Give the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) the clout and capacity it needs to standardise processes and get serious road traffic law enforcement back in place.
3 Deal with the taxi industry. The worst offenders in South Africa are the taxi industry and it is time that officials did what they are being paid to do: govern. Santaco’s road safety checks for taxis on long distance routes during December was a good start but we now need zero tolerance from Santaco for members who break the law.
There is a very similar taxi industry in Brazil which functions with exemplary efficiency and observance of road regulations and it is worth noting that Brazil, which has a population of over 200 million people (nearly four times our population), has a road traffic death rate per 100 000 vehicles of 70,9 — almost two thirds lower than ours in South Africa at 209 fatalities per 100 000 vehicles per annum. Argentina has even better results. We could learn a lot from our South American colleagues.
4 Remove the traffic cops from behind the bushes and bridges. In the UK, some municipalities have outlawed camera trapping because it does not serve the purpose for which it is intended — safer driving. This should be explored in SA.
5 Root out corruption from the driver and vehicle licensing and testing environments.
6 Remove unroadworthy vehicles from the road. Repeat offenders of the rules of the road should be given the heavy hand, vehicles confiscated and fine both the driver and the owner.
7 Fix the deteriorating roads, road signs and traffic lights.The recent mention of national fiscus funding for a planned road infrastructure maintenance and upgrading on a national basis is very encouraging and we applaud the minister of transport for this initiative, which we trust will get underway rapidly in 2012.
