It’s the kind of headline that has become so commonplace it’s unremarkable: “Thirteen people killed in horrific taxi and truck crash”.
But on the Aarto (Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences) website (www.aartofacts.co.za), there are photographs taken on the scene, showing the taxi trapped and crushed under the truck-and-trailer like a crumpled piece of paper, and the sight is enough to haunt the reader for months.
The death toll in public transport accidents has got “out of hand”, as Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele said at the end of August this year when he announced a crackdown on buses and minibus taxis. And as horrific as it is, the fatalities alone are not the full picture.
“Remember that for every person killed in a vehicle accident, at least three are seriously injured,” says Magda Fourie, deputy president of the South African Society of Physiotherapy. “The toll is enormous — even for those who are able to be completely rehabilitated. They will spend a great deal of time under medical care and may require lifelong treatment by physiotherapists and other medical practitioners. And the cost in terms of trauma, distress and the drain on a family’s emotional and financial resources just can’t be counted.”
South Africa enters the global Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 with a shockingly high rate of fatalities on the road. We lose about 40 people a day on average — more than 14 000 a year, accompanied by well over 40 000 serious injuries. An inordinate number of those are killed or injured while travelling in public transport, from school buses to taxis and long-distance coaches.
ER24 spokesperson Werner Vermaak says that, since January 2011, ER24 attended at “almost 411 accidents involving taxis, 288 accidents involving buses and 30 accidents involving trains. These figures only represent ER24 and not the government services or any other private service across the country, so in fact the figure could even be much higher.”
Looking for causes
What has triggered this apparent spiralling of public transport accidents? Why does South Africa have such a devastatingly poor safety record? “It’s because of two things,” says Automobile Association spokesperson Gary Ronald.
“The state of the vehicles and the state of the drivers.” Spokesperson for the Road Traffic Management Corporation, Ashref Ishmael, agrees. “There are a number of ills afflicting public passenger transport in South Africa, most common of which are vehicle fitness and dangerous driving, which includes overloading, excessive speeds, barrier-line and red-light infringements. Poor driver training and fraudulently obtained licenses add to the problems.”
Vermaak says that the most likely cause of any accident is simply poor driving and drivers disobeying the rules of the road. But drivers of public transport vehicles should be more alert, skilled and safer than the average Joe, surely; after all, they have to get a professional driver’s permit to drive “a goods vehicle, breakdown vehicle or a vehicle weighing more than 3 500kg and designed to carry 12 or more people (the driver included)”.
You must have a valid driver’s licence for that kind of vehicle, you have to be medically fit, and in the past five years you must have had no convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol, for reckless or negligent driving, or for a violent offence. But we all know that it is possible to get a fraudulent licence, and when it comes to the time for renewal, says Ronald, “there’s no evaluation of driving skills”, which surely should be at the heart of the licensing and renewal process. Then there’s the state of the vehicle, another possible opening for fraudulent behaviour.
“Public transport vehicles should be roadworthied once a year,” says Ronald. If registration plates are swopped around, though, it is possible to use one roadworthy vehicle to obtain a roadworthy certificate for another vehicle that definitely isn’t roadworthy. The blame, Ronald suggests, often lies squarely with the operators, who are reluctant to take action and fix vehicles even when problems are reported by their drivers.
Seeking solutions
But that’s exactly what the department aims to do. The National Rolling Enforcement Plan (NREP) launched last year has seen more than 12-million vehicles “stopped and checked from October 2010 to August 2011, more than seven million notices issued for a variety of offences, 18 000 drivers arrested mostly for drinking and driving, and close to 50 000 vehicles discontinued and/or impounded for either vehicle defects or incorrect/fraudulent documentation or both,” says Ishmael.
Many of these were public transport vehicles and recently, following the spate of deadly public-transport accidents, the department ordered that every public-transport vehicle was to be stopped and checked. The revised NREP will be launched by the minister in October and will see a greater focus on drinking and driving, and dangerous driving.
“Dangerous driving will be closely monitored and people will be arrested rather than fined,” says Ishmael. “The blitz on all public passenger and freight transport vehicles will continue.”
In addition, Ishmael says: [the taxi association] “Santaco has launched a bold and innovative campaign called Operation Hlokomela [which means ‘take care’] wherein they have planned to work with authorities to regulate their own members. We need to applaud and encourage them. We need to also encourage commuters to report bad drivers to 0861 400 800 and develop a passengers’ charter that outlines the rights and obligations of operators, drivers and passengers.” This is a good start, but the initiative must be sustained and stepped up.
Vermaak says: “South Africa does have rules and regulations that are well documented but not always enforced. Although it’s good to catch drivers who behave badly on the road, it’s only part of the solution. Given the parlous state of many public transport vehicles, it’s critical, says Ronald, to ensure that the operators of taxis and buses are held accountable. “If they lost their operating licences, that might work.” No public transport vehicle should be on our roads in an unfit state, or in the control of a driver who is not properly trained and skilled.
Road accidents costly for SA
The cost of South African road accidents runs to R140-billion annually, says the AA’s Gary Ronald. The cost, per person, for emergency services ranges from R2 500 for basic treatment and transport to the nearest hospital to about R10 000 if more advanced intervention and skills are required. “Each ambulance that transports a patient is billed per time and skill level, not distance,” says ER24’s Werner Vermaak.
“The moment a helicopter becomes involved with evacuation the cost could be well over R50 000 for one patient.” “The psychological trauma is not really something you can describe to someone,” says Vermaak. “We managed to identify the need for trauma support and in January this year we launched our trauma support unit. At first staff were reluctant to contact them, but we have seen an increase in their utilisation.” — Mandi Smallhorne
Less road congestion by 2020
The department of transport’s Vision for a Public Transport Legacy 2007-2020 envisages cities that will place “over 85% of a metropolitan city’s population within 1km of an integrated rapid public transport network trunk (road and rail) or feeder (road) corridor”. To reduce congestion, carbon costs and accidents, the department wants commuters out of cars and on public transport in large numbers. Walking and cycling networks linked to public transport networks are essential. Cyclists are among the most vulnerable road users at present, but the establishment of formal and regulated cycling paths will help to overcome road safety issues.
In Cape Town, new paths have made the integration of bicycles into the new rapid bus transport system a reasonable success. But there’s another obstacle. Cycling South Africa’s director of recreational cycling David Bellairs says that “the apparent limiting factor is the lack of infrastructure for commuters to safely store their bikes once they have reached their destination”. And bicycles are not permitted on trains. Safe and secure bicycle storage in and around cities as well as the transport of bicycles on buses and trains is vital to the success of an integrated public transport system used by large numbers of commuters. Something for planners to slot into the big picture. — Mandi Smallhorne