Transport Minister Dullah Omar is taking questions online about this year’s Arrive Alive holiday campaign — and he is asking the public to click on the campaign icon on the transport department website to send messages to him.
The website is www.transport.gov.za and the minister is also calling on companies, organisations or individuals to pledge support for the campaign. The
pledges will be published on the website. Messages can also be conveyed by email through [email protected].
Omar said in a statement that institutions and individuals had a role to play in the daily fight to decrease the number of lives lost on South African
roads. ”We need to take a stand as companies and organisations to ensure that our employees follow the rules and regulations of the road.”
According to the United States Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, there were 9 068 road deaths in 1998 in South Africa, which
with Nigeria, contributed almost 50% of all reports deaths on the African continent. These countries, also, however, have the most vehicles on the roads.
Nigeria with 6 185 deaths in 1995 was showing a reduction from a high of over 9 200 just a few years before, the Highway Administration reports.
Nigeria has about 1,4-million motor vehicles with a population of 65,5-million (1996 figures) while South Africa has a population it says of 47-million.
There are 5,7-million motor vehicles in South Africa of a total of 10,7-million in 42 countries in the US 1996 study.
South Africa has a relatively low fatality rate per 10 000 vehicles on the road — just 16 compared to the worst figure of 902 for the Central African
Republic. The figure for Nigeria is 45 and for Botswana 55. – I-Net Bridge