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Innovation and infrastructure for South Africa

Nomfundo Cele
Nomfundo Cele
Technology innovation agency
About:

The 2018 global status report on road safety reported that road accidents kill over 1.35 million people each year and are one of the six highest causes of disability. Road accidents are the leading cause of death each year than diseases like tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, or HIV/AIDS. World Health Organization emphasized that these deaths disproportionately happen in sub-Saharan Africa, where 32 of the 40 nations with the highest fatality rate per capita are located, which shifts mortality from road accidents to a socioeconomic development problem and a public health problem. Road safety and road accidents has become a serious public health issue in numerous countries, with increased international community concern. The United Nations incorporated road safety into the seventeen sustainable development goals (SDGs), in particular, SDG 3 on good health and well-being and SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities. The persistence and extent of this public health issue demands new methods to road safety procedure. Due to the announced 2021-2030 Decade of Action for Road Safety by World Health Organization, road safety has become a major area of interest for researchers, policy makers and transport engineers. Traditional methods to improve road safety are centred on executing seminars and workshops on safe driving, awareness campaigns on safe driving, and implementing strict road rules to change the behaviour and attitude of road users. Traditional methods fail to capture the complications of the road systems and to address this problem, the Decade of Action for Road Safety is adopted on critical ideas of systems thinking. The action plan is a guideline for nations to enhance road safety and focuses on safer mobility and roads, road safety management, road users’ safety, safer vehicles, hospital care and enhanced post-crash response. In South Africa the road-traffic accident (injury) mortality rate is 27 fatalities for a 100,000 population, which is over double the international average, and well over the African region average, and above 60 percent of these road-traffic injuries are a result of alcohol consumption. Noting, in South Africa 75 percent of households depend on public transport, the minibus taxi has a greater modal share; people prefer to use the minibus taxi compared to other modes. However, is more regularly involved in road-traffic accidents compared to other modes. Each year, minibus taxis account for 70,000 road-traffic accidents; double the number of other public transport modes. According to the Department of Transport and Arrive Alive, the reason for this is driver behaviour and attitude. Based on the 2011 road-traffic report, speeding is responsible for nearly 40 percent of fatal crashes because of human error. There has been an increase of bus and truck crash reports which results in many deaths and mostly because of human error such as unsafe overtaking, speeding and fatigue. In the context of South Africa, the World Health Organization found that South African cities are more prone to traffic accidents with approximately a million road-traffic accidents each year. The Road Traffic Management Corporation reported that over 40 people are casualties in fatal accidents and at minimum 20 people sustain lifetime injuries that cause permanent disability each day in South Africa because of road-traffic-accidents. Shared taxis, including minibus taxis, account for the bulk of public transport in African cities. Researchers put forward an urgent call for action to lessen road-traffic incidents in Africa. Stating, the world’s leading 13 road-traffic incidents death toll are African nations. Scholars’ plea with African road safety and transport entities, government agencies and researchers to increase government funding for road-traffic incidents research and promote more alliance between researchers, to strictly enforce road-traffic safety regulations, to invest in road safety and transportation technologies, and to lay out a road map on effective interventions to reduce road-traffic incidences to 50 percent as anticipated by the World Health Organization. Academics agree that road-traffic crashes are strongly linked with driver behaviour. Mentioning that Africa has the highest road-traffic crash fatality rate, however there is very minimal research or interventions done on addressing this critical matter on the African continent.

Target audience:
Trucking companies (increase in minibuses and truck fatal collisions-minibuses and trucks are more likely to crash), Minibustaxi providers, Ride hailing service providers, Bus providers, Private vehicle owners
Status: Active
Interested in cooperation with:
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