PAUL KIRK, Durban | Friday
SCHOOL pupils and business people in Durban are being shown shocking video footage of traffic accidents in a bid to make them more responsible drivers – and it seems to be working.
Top traffic policeman Principal Provincial Inspector Mervyn Atwell travels with a video camera as well as his copy of the Road Traffic Act.
Overloaded trucks smashing into other trucks and plunging across oncoming traffic make for shocking video – and it is intended to.
Atwell got the idea from colleagues in Australia where road accident figures declined enormously after traffic officers showed drivers the most horrific accident footage imaginable.
The gore scared many drivers out of complacency. Video footage on national television in Australia showed the horrific consequences of high-speed vehicle smashes – all in colour and close-up.
Atwell has a collection of videos that have been shown to many Durban schoolchildren. According to their teachers, they have had the desired effect. Young drivers are instantly shocked into driving at sensible speed.
Some of the opening scenes of the video show an ambulance driver carrying a drivers dismembered calf and foot back to the crash scene – 20m away.
Another scene shows a slab of raw meat that was once a calf muscle. The leg was ripped apart as the driver flew through the windscreen of his truck. Despite being airlifted to hospital, he died the next day.
Says Atwell: We actually need a full-time crew to go out and shoot this sort of stuff and then show it. It is shocking, but very effective. It makes people realise the consequences of disobeying the laws. It shows what happens when people disregard basic safety rules.
So far the footage has only been shown to a few schools that have invited Atwell and his department to give a presentation. But if Atwell had his way, the footage would be seen by many more drivers.
A recent all-out blitz on overloaded and unroadworthy vehicles has shown that, no matter how reputable the transport company, they pretty much all get up to no good.
Last week a major national transport company – that mocks its more blue-collar competitors in TV adverts – was caught out with a dangerously overloaded truck.
Atwell, the traffic chief who looks after some of the most dangerous areas of the N3 – officially the busiest stretch of road in Africa – has bust virtually all of the blue-chip transport companies.
A vehicle belonging to a major national company that moves fuel for major petrol companies was also recently bust by Atwells men. He has a video showing one of their fuel tankers without any HazChem signs on the side. These signs notify emergency services personnel what is in the tanker – and what to do if it spills.
Atwell says, according to national Department of Transport statistics, a whopping 87% of all traffic law enforcement nationwide occurs in KwaZulu-Natal.
Much of this occurs in Atwells enforcement area, the stretch of the N3 from Durban to Cato Ridge.
Since March his officers have been going all out targeting unroadworthy and overloaded vehicles.
Unroadworthy vehicles claim a shocking toll in terms of human life. Overloaded vehicles, especially trucks, cost the country a shocking sum in terms of the infrastructure they destroy.
Says Atwell: In 1998 statistics showed that some 9% of South Africas national road infrastructure had been damaged by overloaded trucks. Now it is over 35%. Overloaded trucks are costing the country a fortune. And we cannot afford to keep repairing roads. We need to stop the cause of the damage.