Driving with Care
South Africans concerned about road safety will welcome the traffic points-demerit system which will come into effect nationally in April 2011—with the caveat that the system should be administered competently and efficiently.
According to the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) system, those found guilty of multiple traffic violations risk suspension or even repeal of their drivers’ licence. It must be hoped that the system will persuade imprudent drivers to modify their attitudes when in control of a vehicle. The points system has functioned successfully in many countries. In Germany, where the system was first introduced in 1974, it has become part of national culture, giving rise to jokes that compare the performance of football teams with the accumulation of punitive points.
The fear of losing their drivers’ licence animates German motorists to drive with care. The Vatican, in a 2007 document on road safety titled “Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road”, rightly pointed out that “cars tend to bring out the ‘primitive’ side of human beings”. This is certainly true in South Africa, where reckless driving, inconsiderate conduct and road rage—what the Vatican called “psychological regression”—are common. Many otherwise responsible individuals abandon reason once they take charge of a motor vehicle.
Not a few imitate the anarchic approach to traffic shown by reckless minibus taxi drivers. It must be hoped that the demerit system will disabuse motorists of such mistaken notions—and that it will persuade those who set bad examples in the first place to mend their ways. South African motorists need to collectively reform themselves, recognising that their actions behind the wheel have an immediate impact—sometimes literally—on others.
As participants in traffic, we must be conscious of our mutual obligations because our safety depends on the actions of others. Therefore we must also consider the consequences of our decisions on others. It should alarm us that often the deterrent to driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs resides in the possibility of being caught. Surely the increased risk of causing an accident, perhaps lethal, should inhibit thoughts of drink-driving.
Likewise, those who drive while talking on a cellphone are a threat to other people, as attention to traffic is gravely compromised. This behaviour must not be trivialised, as it often is.
Welcome as the point-demerit system is, it must be applied fairly, consistently and competently. It requires a more visible law enforcement presence on our roads, perhaps with a shift of emphasis from the issue of parking fines to correcting the use of cars that actually are in motion. Such enforcement must be consistent.
Minibus taxi divers must be subject to traffic law enforcement just as civilian motorists are, inevitable protests and even the threat of disorder notwithstanding. Traffic restrictions must be fairly applied. Arbitrary speed limits that seem designed to aid not road safety but revenue origination via traffic fines must be revised and, if necessary, challenged.
However, the responsibility for making South African roads safer should be directed primarily to motorists themselves, guided by the principles of courtesy, integrity and prudence.
Motor vehicles are potentially lethal instruments, and all we do while in control of them should be predicated on the simple mandate of the fifth commandment — “You shall not kill”—and on the intolerable possibility that our driving decisions might cause injury or death.
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