IN 2016, road crashes cost the South African economy R142.95 billion. This is 3.4 per cent of SA’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 1.4 percent higher than the international benchmark, according to Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters.

“These costs are split three ways. Human casualty is 69.3 per cent with 15.8 per cent going to incidents and infrastructure and vehicle repairs taking 14.9 percent. We cannot afford to allow the economic impact of road fatalities to circumvent our common vision and objectives,” the minister said.

She was speaking at the third Road Safety Summit hosted in Durban last week.

“Road deaths and injuries are sudden, violent and traumatic. Each year, millions of newly injured and bereaved people from every corner of the world are added to the countless millions already suffering as a result of a road crash,”she said.

Peters explained that in May 2011, a global drive to curb road deaths was launched. Known as the Decade of Action (DoA), the primary goal of DoA is to reduce road deaths by half in 2020.

She added that the number of crashes and subsequent cost was negatively impacting the economy.

“Our proposed National Road Safety Strategy embodies the principles of the National Development Plan and the Safe Systems’ approach and draws lessons from the international road safety best practices. Unquestionably, our strategy will ensure the creation of a synergised ‘one voice’ across all provinces and all sectors of our society to promote road safety. It will also be an instrument used at our schools to teach learners about road safety.

The minister added that Given the current #…mustfall trend coined by the youth, the Road Traffic Crashes must indeed fall and be tagged #Roadtrafficcrashesmustfall. We cannot afford to allow the economic impact of road fatalities to circumvent our common vision and objectives as spelled out by the National Development Plan (NDP), which seeks to address the triple challenges namely, unemployment, poverty and inequality by 2030.