Proposal on road safety in South Africa

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this presentation is to introduce you to a situation in road use and road safety in SA that, in mild language, borders on a national disaster; the relevant statistics and related research findings that follow, amply support this observation.

Moreover, this situation has damning adverse financial implications for, and effects upon, the budget design and management of, especially fleet owners of vehicles. However, a reversal of the situation certainly has substantial potential to reduce information asymmetries in the insurance market, by a significant margin: which in turn should benefit both insurance provider and the vehicle owner, as well as to remedy other major weaknesses.

The situation highlighted can be reversed only if it is tackled comprehensively and systematically. And this is where HOW DO I DRIVE will figure prominently.

BRIEF BACKGROUND INFORMATION and STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM AND NEEDS:

By being a signed-in representative for many years of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and having thus to travel extensively, I could not help but notice the dire need for a safer roadsafety system in South Africa. Studying ‘Arrive Alive’ statistics in conjunction with research done on the implementation of driver monitoring programmes in the USA and Europe, confirmed the validity of my concern. And here the idea of HDID(How Do I Drive) was born.

THE PURPOSE: HOW DO I DRIVE is a FLEET MANAGEMENT programme; it endeavours to

• identify unsafe drivers;
• change driver’s sense of accountability;
• strip drivers of their anonymity on the SA roads;
• reduce accidents;
• save lives;
• save time and money;
• Change road misuse and road unsafety to what it appropriately should be: road use and roadsafety.

THE PROBLEM and NEED:

The situation in question constitutes both a problem and a need: Firstly, the problem: it encompasses reckless and dangerous driving resulting in road deaths, more often than not, irreparable injuries, costly damages and lost of vehicles and valuable time; arising essentially from three main casual sources: a) a partial or total lack of accountability for one’s actions, b) complete anonymity which shields the driver from liability or social sanction, c) lack of sound judgement of variable road conditions together with partial or total lack of proper driving skills exacerbated by unlicensed driving.


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Secondly, the need: It can safely be said that this proposed HDID programme will help to satisfy an extremely important need: that of safe and pleasurable driving on any SA road. An American researcher, Dr. Lior Jacob Strahilevitz has recently found that “...economic research has placed commuting at the very bottom of the happiness index, easily ranking as the least pleasurable major life activity in which Americans engage.” We believe that that it can moreover be argued with sound reason that existing measures in South Africa to curb roadsafely related deaths, inconveniences and costs are wholly inadequate.

STATISTICAL and RESEARCH backing:

“Arrive Alive South Africa” filed the following statistics and observations relating to road “accidents” in South Africa: “The first comprehensive statistical analysis of road accidents in South Africa, published by the Road Traffic Management Corporation in 2005, found that 90% of crashes in South Africa in 2004 were the result of lawlessness…”, that is, the accidents were foreseeable and thus prepreventable, hence strictly not ‘accidents’ at all.
Moreover, it comments that “ ‘human factors’ such as non-adherence to traffic rules, and aggressive, reckless, negligent or inconsiderate driver behaviour, were the major contributing factors, playing a casual role in 70-80% of all accidents.” The corporation in question furthermore observes:
“The number of fatal crashes in South Africa over the 12 month period, 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008, stands at 11,577. For the same period the number of fatalities stands at 14,627.”
Dr. Lior Jacob Strahilevitz, the researcher quoted above, filed the following alarming statistics concerning fatalities: “Vehicular collisions are leading killer of Americans aged fifteen to twenty nine, and the nation’s fourth largest cause of loss disability-adjusted life years. Worldwide, traffic accidents kill nearly 1.2 million people annually.”

It thus seems that the road safety position generally, and specifically in South Africa, is indeed as acute as acute as it is being portrayed here, and this view strongly correlates with support given by extensive literature reviews conducted both in the USA and Ireland. Reviews, inter alia, state: “…more than 40 years of descriptive and experimental research studies have supported a reliable association between aggressive driving and increased risk of motor vehicle accidents.”
Thus the story is straightforward: People are prone to aggressive driving when they feel that anonymity shields them form liability or social sanction.

Commercial Fleets using bumper stickers emblazoned on the back of commercial trucks and vans, together with monitoring and performance of individual drivers, and investigating complaints, engendered substantial reduction in accidents and losses. USA research done in the late 90s strongly support the reduction claim; I quote: “A great West Casualty Company study of 78 trucking companies found that in two years after the implemented HDID programmes, loss ratio improved by 51%, and accident frequency dropped by 53%. John Deere Transportation insurance’s study of 63 companies found a 45% decline in loss ratio and a 33% decline in accidents. Other fleets instituting HDID programmes have seen similar improvements.
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Recent research in the USA relating to Cost-Benefit Analysis reports the following findings: “An aggregation of these benefits, via HMD data, suggests the following: For commercial vehicles: collision reductions could range from 20 to 50%. An economic analysis found that the mean social costs of a fatal traffic accident in the developed world was approximately $1.5 billion in 1999.” (Ordinary figures and not bold ones are in original documents).

Thus, needless to say these results are striking and the statistics impressive, and suggest, with good reason, that existing HDID programmes may result in large cost savings, and prevent many injuries and deaths, rendering in turn, savings of many millions revenue.

Useful Backround: Principles and Norms: The proposed HDID programme is based on core norms and principles such as accuracy, consistency, accountability, fairness, a fair measure of forbearance, thoughtfulness, etc., and this in turn is underpinned by rational and disciplined thought and action; that is, all deliberations and decisions on roadsafety matters, are subjected to and thus scrutinized in terms of the proposed core values and principles.

One definitive implication relating to the proposed core values and principles is the imperative that managers/supervisors must “teach” their drivers the suggested core norms and principles if it is not yet part of their conceptual and operating equipment.

Description or programme: Technical specifications; Objectives; Methods; Evaluation.

Technical Specifications: How Do I Drive will supply you with the relevant number of vehicle signs; and the signs come in two sizes: standard number plate: 440 x 120mm, and rectangular 305 x 165mm number plate. Custom make/Perspex, size on request.

Budget requirements: The annual cost to subscribe one vehicle to the programme is R580,00 plus Vat.
A one-time set-up fee of R490,00 plus Vat is applicable to all new accounts.
On receipt of your completed application form, vehicle information sheet, and annual subscription fee, processing will immediately take effect.

Objectives: 1. To delegate traffic regulation over time to the truck drivers/motorist themselves. 2. To enable state and local governments to redirect resources to other equally important areas: health care, education, or infrastructure. 3. To enable state and local authorities to more effectively police dangerous annoying forms of driver misconduct. 4. To assist the insurance market to introduce more fairness into the market, by reducing the information asymmetries, and letting each subscriber pay only for what he receives, based on the facts. 5. To eliminate road-hogging; in so doing alleviate road rage and driver frustration. 6. To educate/socialize South African motorists and fleet drivers to internalize the core values and principles, and thus to be able to act as role models capable to translate the core values and principles into actions, and become doers rather than talkers only.

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Behavioural objectives:

The proposed HDID programme entertains the reasonable expectation that its inception will trigger human action on a relatively significant scale: drivers of all categories showing the HDID signs/placards on their vehicles will start conceptualizing the proposed core values and principles, especially how they relate to the safety of every road-user; and will start phoning….in. We believe that it is not being overambitious to say that an effective HDID programme would essentially turn every vehicle on the road into an unmarked police car, resulting in substantial reductions in unlawful or dangerous and inconsiderate driver behaviour.

Performance Objective: It is expected that after one to two years a positive behaviour among the motoring and transportation public, at an expected proficiency level, will occur.

Process: By using such programmes, society can replace state policing with citizen policing and laws with NORMS, thus implying the eventual inculcating of a CULTURE OF ACCOUNTABLE DRIVING. And this is an end in itself.

It is worth noting that our common goal, and therefore our mutual responsibility, is to achieve a significant drop in South African road accidents, save lives, time and money, thus, by involving as many commuters as possible and taking drivers’ road anonymity away, making them accountable for their actions, this can be achieved.

Product: A clearly intelligible result can be observed.

Methods:
1. By placing easy to read bumper stickers on the rear of a vehicle commuters are encouraged to make use of our call centre and to report any form of unsafe and dangerous driving.
2. The call centre will be manned 24 hours a day/365 days a year.
3. The incoming calls will be transformed into a report which is sent to the relevant manager/supervisor.
4. By receiving an unbiased report the manager is now able to take further action: either advanced driving lessons, or disciplinary action.

Evaluation: To build evaluation into our project is an indispensable part of our programme design: one needs to establish whether or not the programme is successful.
Moreover, to include a mechanism to evaluate the process, clearly indicates that the logic of the entire enterprise is well understood, that is, achieving objectives is a serious goal.
Thus we will analyse the process from time to time in terms of its functionality and whether or not it is effectually pleasing.


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We will evaluate the behavioural results on a yearly to two-yearly basis: the latter being the more accurate one. That is, with the client’s permission, we will gather the relevant data via his/her insurance company, analyse it, and thereafter provide you with the results you have achieved by implementing the HDID programme.
I wish to acknowledge with sincere thanks and appreciation the generous help of the following two gentlemen: Advocate Johan Jonck of Arrive Alive South Africa; Prof. Jan N Dreyer for his invaluable assistance in trying to conceptualize the problems relating to roadsafety in South Africa, and to work out a framework to counteract and eliminate the weaknesses so identified.


Mike Robert Hildebrandt.