South Africa ranks first in the world in the rate of alcohol-related road traffic deaths.
Research by driver education platform Zutobi found that approximately 57.5% of road traffic deaths can be attributed to alcohol.
This is despite South Africa having stricter rules for alcohol consumption than many countries who fair better with alcohol-related traffic fatalities.
The law stipulates that local drivers may only have a Blood-Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.05, meaning they may have no more than 0.05 grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.
Meanwhile, the United States, Guyana, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia have the most relaxed BAC of the 53 countries on review in the Zutobi study at 0.08.
Yet, they rank ninth, 23rd, 30th, and 53rd, respectively, in terms of alcohol-related road deaths.
The war against drunk driving in South Africa
Deputy Minister of Transport, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, said that the high number of drunk driving fatalities in South Africa is largely the result of motorists who do not care about the law.
He noted that, over the festive season, traffic police pulled over inebriated drivers at all hours of the day, even as early as nine o’clock in the morning.
This suggests that it’s not so much that drivers don’t know the rules of the road, but that they don’t care about them, suggested the Deputy Minister.
Apart from the cost of human lives lost, these reckless individuals place unnecessary strain on the country’s infrastructure, emergency response, and healthcare systems.
To end the scourge, Hlengwa proposed that South Africa start including a bespoke tax for the Road Accident Fund (RAF) in the price of alcohol.
At present, the RAF is funded by a R2.18 levy on fuels. Between 2022 and 2024, the levy brought in an astonishing R145 billion for the Fund, R142 billion of which was paid out in claims to road accident victims.
“Currently you have a situation where the Road Accident Fund Levy comes out of the Fuel Levy, and I do not see anything wrong with us instituting within the alcohol pricing system a direct charge for the Road Accident Fund as well, among others, in order for us to actually ensure that the user-pay principle applies for the alcohol users and the kind of behaviors that we see on the road,” said Hlengwa.
“If you hit the pocket, you make quite a significant stride towards ensuring that there’s a second thought to how people conduct themselves and how they drink their alcohol and where they drink their alcohol.”
Hlengwa maintains that if alcohol prices are directly affected by road accidents, it would lead fewer drivers getting behind the wheel after having a few drinks.
Meanwhile, the Automobile Association (AA) put forth the idea of instating a zero-alcohol policy on South African roads.
This would reduce the legally permissible BAC to 0.00, meaning you cannot drink at all if you plan on driving soon thereafter.
South Africa witnessed a significant improvement in drunk driving and other alcohol-related injuries during the Covid-19 pandemic, when a temporary prohibition was enacted on alcohol sales, said the AA.
Hospitals recorded a 60% drop in injuries from road traffic accidents and violent assaults during this period, which swiftly returned to normal levels once the ban was lifted.
These statistics point to an urgent need for systemic change to citizens’ attitudes and behaviour towards alcohol consumption, the AA said.
It noted that alcohol can remain in one’s system for up to eight hours after consumption, and that even one drink is enough to impair your driving abilities.
Not only does being drunk inhibit one’s reaction time and visual capacity, but it also deteriorates cognitive thinking, leading to poor decisions like forgoing a seatbelt and misreading the road.
The AA therefore argues that a zero-tolerance approach is vital for reducing the number of alcohol-related road deaths and injuries in South Africa.
The Department of Transport previously stated that such a policy would be implemented as far back as 2021, though nothing came of these efforts.
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