Killer roads, a road safety bureau and personal responsibility

The grim news has not stopped flowing over the past couple of weeks as road fatalities occupied substantial news space alongside other tragic world and domestic events. 

Today, we report on what we have described as the ‘map of death’—an exercise undertaken by cycling advocacy group Rota to map every single road fatality of the past 25 years. It is not an exercise in curiosity but a grim memorial of each and every individual who has died as a result of road accidents. 

Each death is not just a number. Each death represents a person, whose dreams were vanquished on our roads. Each death represents the pain endured by loved ones at the untimely demise of their relative, friend, acquaintance, partner, husband, wife, child. 

On 8 January, this leader expressed its concern in the wake of the first road victim of the year—a 25-year-old man who smashed his car into a crash barrier, a tree and then a metal signpost. Since then, the number of road deaths has risen to 12. 

Back in January, we called for the immediate creation of a road safety bureau, first mooted in 2023, that would be tasked with investigating accidents to identify shortcomings in road design, driver and pedestrian behaviour, mechanical failures and anything that can help inform policy makers and road designers on the causes of accidents and other risks. 

A road safety bureau is not intended to apportion blame—that will remain the remit of the magisterial inquiry—but it will serve as a single focal point for information gathering and analysis. 

Policy, road design, mitigation measures and educational campaigns work best when they are research-driven. And there is no better research than the data derived directly from investigations of accidents. 

The controversial magisterial inquiry reform pushed by the government earlier this year also included non-controversial legal changes that enable the setting up of a Transport Safety Investigative Commission. 

The government should not delay the setting up of this commission any further. Transport Minister Chris Bonett must make this a priority. 

Furthermore, road safety campaigns, an increased presence of enforcement officials on the roads and random roadside alcohol and drug tests should extend over the full year because this will serve as a deterrent for dangerous driving. It could also save lives. 

Whether it is because of a moment’s inattention, a sadistic willingness to drive dangerously and in the process risking their own lives and those of others, a medical condition, substance abuse or unfavourable weather and road conditions, accidents will always happen. But we must not resign ourselves to this fatalistic attitude. 

Minimising risks, educating people and increasing deterrence could help curb the number of accidents and their severity. 

But the transport minister was right in parliament when he also urged road users to be more respectful towards each other; obey the rules and generally be more careful when driving or using the road. We make the minister’s appeal our own. 

There is a fair share of personal responsibility in accidents and it would be absurd to ignore this even though the tendency is to blame everything and everyone apart from ourselves. Unfortunately, it has become fashionable in certain circles to blame ‘society’ and failures in the ‘education system’ for every problem, every ill, every troubling situation. Undoubtedly, there are unfortunate cases that boil down to systemic problems in society, in governance, and in the education system. These issues must be understood and addressed through systemic changes that ensure people are treated equally, in a just way, and have access to adequate opportunities. But it would be foolish to remove personal responsibility from the equation. 

When a motorist decides to push the speedometer to the limit in a residential neighbourhood, they are engaging in risky behaviour that not only endangers themselves but puts others at risk of injury and death. Of course, the authorities must do everything in their power to ensure roads are structurally safe, rules are enforced, mitigation measures are introduced… but the motorist who chooses to drive at 120km/h on a residential road should remain uniquely responsible for that dangerous decision.