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CAPE TOWN - The attitude of South African drivers is the main cause of death on the country’s roads - at least according to roads and transport department deputy director-general James Mlawu.
Mlawu claimed: "It's about the attitude that our drivers have to what it means to be on the roads. It is a shared space. It is a space that you and I use and therefore there has to be consideration for others.
"In South Africa, it seems to me that a large majority of our drivers do not realise that driving on the road is a privilege.
DRIVING 'A PRIVILEGE'
He was speaking at a road safety conference in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, and added: "You’ve been given a privilege to share the space with others. You can’t behave as if you are alone.
"We need to get into a mode in this country where it is not the court that has to find you guilty, you have to have the conscience to say: "I am with other people in this space, let me be considerate'."
According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation, road accidents cost the country R300-billion a year with an estimated 14 000 people killed each year on the country’s roads.
Mlawu said other factors, such as road conditions and the roadworthiness of vehicles, were part of the government’s focus to reduce road carnage.
Mlawu claimed: "It's about the attitude that our drivers have to what it means to be on the roads. It is a shared space. It is a space that you and I use and therefore there has to be consideration for others.
"In South Africa, it seems to me that a large majority of our drivers do not realise that driving on the road is a privilege.
DRIVING 'A PRIVILEGE'
He was speaking at a road safety conference in Boksburg, east of Johannesburg, and added: "You’ve been given a privilege to share the space with others. You can’t behave as if you are alone.
"We need to get into a mode in this country where it is not the court that has to find you guilty, you have to have the conscience to say: "I am with other people in this space, let me be considerate'."
According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation, road accidents cost the country R300-billion a year with an estimated 14 000 people killed each year on the country’s roads.
Mlawu said other factors, such as road conditions and the roadworthiness of vehicles, were part of the government’s focus to reduce road carnage.
Share your views on the deputy director's statements in our Readers' Comments below or email us and we'll publish your article on Wheels24.
Wheels24 says: Good try sir, but we have to disagree. Half of all road deaths - which informed estimates put at closer to 20 000 a year, thanks to bad reporting at hospitals and police stations - are pedestrians, most of whom are (or, in this case, once were) in the ANC's constituency. Corruption at licensing centres and among traffic cops, lack of road-safety training at schools, failure to use SABC-TV as a road-safety training tool and sheer driving incompetence (not attitude) are the root of this evil.
They all lie at your department's front door, sir.
Reader: Driving is a paradox
Reader: Reduce the speed limit
Reader: Try to obey the rules
Reader: Driver attitude to blame
Reader: Driver's disregard the rules
Wheels24 says: Good try sir, but we have to disagree. Half of all road deaths - which informed estimates put at closer to 20 000 a year, thanks to bad reporting at hospitals and police stations - are pedestrians, most of whom are (or, in this case, once were) in the ANC's constituency. Corruption at licensing centres and among traffic cops, lack of road-safety training at schools, failure to use SABC-TV as a road-safety training tool and sheer driving incompetence (not attitude) are the root of this evil.
They all lie at your department's front door, sir.
Reader: Driving is a paradox
Reader: Reduce the speed limit
Reader: Try to obey the rules
Reader: Driver attitude to blame
Reader: Driver's disregard the rules
