The recent uptick in multi-vehicle collisions experienced in South Africa should be investigated much more closely than they currently are, said Gavin Kelly, chief executive of the Road Freight Association (RFA), in an interview on 702’s Drive with John Perlman.
In March, a truck on the M41 in Umhlanga lost control and drove through more than 40 cars. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured during the terrifying ordeal.
During the same month, a crash in Limpopo involving two taxis and a truck resulted in 15 fatalities – five children and 10 adults – with 10 more injured and sent to the hospital.
In early April, an accident on the N3 in KwaZulu-Natal again involving 40 vehicles, including passenger cars, taxis, and busses, claimed another five lives.
Kelly believes that incidents like these should be scrutinized more severely to find the root cause, as it will assist in bringing down the number of the horrific accidents in the future.
Tackle the cause, not the symptom
The RFA holds the belief that “a good 80%” of the multi-car pile-ups that have happened in South Africa could have been prevented, said Kelly.
While there are established systems to investigate these incidents, Kelly said in reality, there is actually minimal detective work taking place in this regard, and that the regulations in and of themselves are also insufficient.
“There are areas where there is very little application of any sort of policing and any sort of investigation, and then afterward, where there is some sort of investigation, the lessons learned just aren’t filtering down, and that’s really the problem,” he said.
These lessons include educating motorists on what constitutes dangerous behaviour. For example, in low-visibility conditions, such as when it’s raining or fog is hanging over the road, it would be unwise to drive 120km/h even if the legal limit is just that.
“Those are the lessons that, somehow, we have to get across to the average Joe,” said Kelly.
He further notes that visible policing and active traffic control are a big help in enforcing compliance on the road, especially in potentially dangerous situations like that which was present during the majority of previous multi-car incidents.
Referring to the most recent pile-up, Kelly said “If we know that speeding is a problem on that piece of the N3, then what are we doing to ensure the speed is reduced.”
Speeding fines aren’t good enough, he said, and more extensive and purposefully-targeted measures will need to be implemented to see these incidents decrease.
This can only be done by establishing the underlying origins of an issue and proactively implementing preventative measures.
The RFA is therefore imploring authorities to “do proper investigations” not only of severe crashes – which are classified as involving five or more vehicles, or having five or more fatalities – but also the “near-misses” to find the fundamental cause and put a stop to the majority of them.
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