Five Es, one F: failing road safety
Five Es, one F: failing road safety
South Africa spends R1.6 billion annually on road safety, yet maintains fatality rates five times worse than developed nations. NICK PORÉE explains that with 12,000 deaths costing R162 billion per year, our road safety system demands urgent examination and reform.
“Road Safety” is a conceptual term describing an undefined state of social satisfaction regarding the impact of road usage by various users of public roads. The safe conditions enjoyed in developed countries are only achieved through an interconnected set of actions categorised as the five Es: Education, Engineering, Evaluation, Enforcement, and Emergency care. The achievement of road safety results from implementing these five categories, many of which are partially or totally absent in South Africa. The primary institution mandated to address road safety is the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), as an agency of the Department of Transport (DoT).
Box 1: Mandated Functions of the RTMC
Category | Activity |
Enforcement | • Traffic law enforcement • Administrative adjudication of road traffic offences • Vehicle registration and licensing |
Engineering | • Roadworthiness testing • Road infrastructure audits |
Education and communication | • Driver testing and licensing • Training traffic personnel |
Evaluation | • Road traffic information (eNatis) • Accident recording |
Emergency care | Not offered |
South Africa has an estimated fatality rate of 22 to 26/100,000 people (12,000/year), depending on dates and sources referenced. This may also be understated for reasons described later in this piece. The fatality rate is approximately five times higher than the best international standards, which suggests serious omissions in the current management of our road safety.
The total cost of road crashes was estimated at R162.05 billion in 2017 and R142.29 billion in 2018. This represents about 3.5% of South Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s “Road Safety Annual Report 2019″. Total fatalities from 2018 (12,921) compared to 2023 (11,883) show an 8% reduction over five years, but this must be tempered by reduced travel during the Covid pandemic, increases in population and cost of living, and limitations of the data collection and reporting system.
The RTMC is funded with a budget of approximately R1.6 billion/annum, spread across six programmes and functions outlined in Box 2.
Box 2: Programmes and Costs for 2023-2024
Programme | Cost (R) |
Road safety marketing | 26,103,133 |
Training traffic personnel | 160,172,268 |
Law enforcement | 277,605,345 |
Traffic intelligence | 23,069,700 |
Road traffic information and technology | 293,794,052 |
Support services | 796,919,368 |
Annual Total | 1,577,663,885 |
As shown in Box 3, the largest proportion of activity falls under support services (50.5%), followed by road traffic information and technology (18.6%), law enforcement (17.6%), and training officials (10.2%). It is noteworthy that 85% of these costs are allocated to 450 personnel, including R44 million for the executive.
Box 3: Personnel Costs (2023/2024)
Activity | Personnel Costs (R) | Annual Total (R) | Proportion (%) |
Law enforcement | 265,547,463 | 277,605,345 | 17.6 |
Road safety marketing | 22,238,558 | 26,103,133 | 1.65 |
Traffic intelligence and security | 21,565,823 | 23,069,700 | 1.46 |
Strategic services | 150,847,022 | 293,794,052 | 18.62 |
Support services | 796,919,368 | 796,919,368 | 50.51 |
Training traffic personnel | 84,439,153 | 160,172,268 | 10.15 |
Total | 1,341,557,381 | 1,577,663,885 | 100 |
The interventions performed are detailed in Box 4. They show limited fieldwork activity, meaning that the R1 billion allocated to “services” remains unexplained in the annual report. Significantly, the report focuses entirely on RTMC activities and does not indicate effective cooperative integration of road safety activities with the nine provincial traffic departments, the South African Police Service (SAPS), and other road safety-related institutions.
Box 4: Interventions Performed
Type | Number |
Drunk driving | 528 |
Load management | 423 |
Roadworthiness | 697 |
Moving violations | 543 |
Public transport | 696 |
Pedestrian | 168 |
Speed | 225 |
Total | 3,280 (≈ 9 interventions/day) |
The targets for implementing road safety interventions include 31.4 million scholars in 24,850 schools, as well as over 15.6 million drivers of 12.7 million vehicles – of which approximately 500,000 are heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and about 20,000 are passenger buses. It is therefore relevant to examine the application of the five Es to these populations.
Education
Over 70% of road accidents are due to human factors, but education for behaviour change is sadly neglected in favour of ineffective criminalising enforcement.
Pedestrians: There is a need for digital marketing of road safety to the scholar population to reduce the 39% of pedestrian accidents, where children account for a significant proportion. Australian best practice demonstrates the effectiveness of strategic digital videos and messaging across all possible media platforms, none of which exist in South Africa.
Drivers: There is no education programme for professionalising driver trainers. This is especially problematic regarding HGV driver training, where drivers are trained on unloaded mini trucks with no instruction on the dynamics and handling of loaded HGVs. The entire driving school system needs upgrading and monitoring to create a system of professional trainers with industry-approved qualifications and appropriate experience.
Operators: There is no professional road transport management training and no entry qualification to operate vehicles on public roads (unlike legislation for Mines and Works).
Engineering
Vehicle Condition: The vehicle testing station/Certificate of Roadworthiness system is conceptually flawed and corrupted, requiring reorganisation into a focused, monitored, and accountable system that achieves international standards such as the UK Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency systems.
Roads: The lack of pedestrian pavements on many urban and almost all rural roads contributes to pedestrian fatalities. The deteriorating condition of roads in many areas is the subject of widespread complaint, and potholes contribute to accidents. Corrective action is limited by funding constraints, as the Fuel Levy has been diverted from its original objective, and provincial road maintenance lacks engineers and relies on local, informal patching contractors.
Evaluation
The system for recording and monitoring accidents is archaic and inefficient (except in some metro areas). Accident reporting points and response times are inadequate across a large proportion of the road network, resulting in extensive under-reporting of accidents.
There is a need for modernising accident-site recording and digitalising a national database of operators, drivers, and accident data to enhance collection and permit professional analysis. eNatis is inadequate for effective monitoring and reporting, as it was not designed for this function.
Enforcement
Drivers: In all areas, the enforcement strategy needs modernisation, as dependence on the limited availability and equipment of traffic officers is inadequate for the vehicle population and operational levels.
Vehicles: Trained and equipped vehicle technical inspectors on roads are lacking, as is an effective monitoring system. This makes control of vehicle condition ineffective.
Load weight: The lack of a nationally integrated reporting and monitoring system – combined with the fact that over 60% of weighing takes place at approximately 10 freeway sites around the country – makes control of vehicle weights ineffective and subject to corruption.
Operators: The absence of a national system for registering and monitoring commercial operators of HGVs and buses makes evaluation and monitoring of repeat offenders impossible, resulting in a lack of accountability for unsafe vehicles and drivers.
Legislation: Several aspects of the 40-year-old road traffic legislation require updating, evaluation, and revision.
The Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences process for criminalising road behaviour will have minimal impact on the 70% of road users who have no fixed address, postal services, employment records, or mobile media access, but is likely to create difficulties for private motorists and commercial operators facing the draconian terms and legal procedures.
Emergency services
Medical: There is a need for upgraded and standardised equipment and rationalisation of effectively regulated emergency resources through an integrated digitalised communication system.
Breakdown and recovery: Recovery services should be integrated into a national road safety reporting system instead of the current chaotic tow-truck rat race.
Conclusion
Taking all of this information into account, it is evident that present systems and activities are inadequate to support enhanced road safety. Many problem areas are described in the Road Freight Strategy approved by Cabinet in 2017, yet remain unimplemented. There is a lack of effective automated information-gathering and monitoring, with over-dependence on “manual” interventions by officials who are subject to corruption and collusion.
The failure to develop and apply digital capacity for marketing, education, evaluation, and enforcement makes current road safety expenditure on officials excessive for the results achieved. Far greater efforts should be made to involve registered private sector commercial service providers to broaden effective coverage of the five Es’ functions, as is done in developed economies.
The currently fragmented responsibility amongst provinces, RTMC, SAPS, DoT, and municipalities for performing functions within the overall matrix of road safety interventions requires review, replanning, and integration with modern practices. Modernisation of the overall transport management framework and regulatory system is overdue and would benefit from professional industry participation and expertise. A holistic, professional overview of the national road safety effort is required to redirect effort and funding towards achieving these well-merited objectives.
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