The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has “evidence” that transport operators are obtaining their roadworthy certificates illegally and arrests will be made shortly, according to spokesperson, Simon Zwane.
Speaking to FTW last week – following the most recent horror crash on the N1 north in which 26 people died after a truck’s tyre burst and it collided with a minibus taxi and a light delivery vehicle – he said the RTMC was working with the road traffic authorities to step up law enforcement around roadworthiness, driver fitness and more.
“There will be a number of random stops and checks on all national roads,” said Zwane, adding that road transport operators faced “dire consequences” – including criminal charges – if they continued to flout transport regulations, especially roadworthiness and the use of fraudulent roadworthy certificates.
According to RTMC figures, an estimated 91 people have died while 275 have been injured in major collisions involving trucks and buses throughout the country since the beginning of the year. Zwane said the biggest culprits were unroadworthy trucks and failure to keep these vehicles under control. He pointed out that regulations imposed duties on the operators to exercise control over their vehicles and drivers while on public roads.
“Failure to execute these responsibilities could result in the cancellation of operator permits with severe consequences for businesses concerned.” Zwane added that truck operators not only ran the risk of having their vehicles impounded but the cargo would also be impounded until the investigation was completed. He said many operators cited costs as the main reason for not maintaining the roadworthiness of their vehicles.
“But what is a few thousand rands saved in comparison to the risk of hundreds of lives?” Road Freight Association (RFA) acting CEO, Gavin Kelly, agreed that there was “a fair bit of corruption and fraud” around the roadworthiness of vehicles, not only trucks. But, he said, all 6 000 registered trucks had to pass a roadworthy test every year. “And the burden of ensuring roadworthiness is not carried by the private sector,” he pointed out.
“For the RTMC to say that trucks are the biggest culprits, they need to provide proof.
“It’s true that there have been some horrific incidents involving trucks and, while the investigation into last month’s incident on that stretch of road near Mookgophong still needs to be concluded, as far as we know it was a highly roadworthy truck and that the tyre burst in an unfortunate freak accident,” he said. “Yes, there were many lives lost, which is tragic, but most of those were passengers of a minibus taxi,” said Kelly, pointing out that the road was “notorious” for speeding. “The reality is there are far more vehicles on the road – mostly privately owned cars – than there were five years ago and this leads to a higher number of accidents,” he commented.
Kelly believes that South Africa road traffic authorities need to benchmark their methods of ensuring road regulation compliance with those countries around the world who have a higher compliance track record coupled with a lower accident rate.
“It doesn’t help to take the driver off the road and slap him with a higher fine. He will just get back into the unroadworthy truck and continue his business,” said Kelly, who doesn’t believe it helps to impound the cargo.
“The owner of that cargo has nothing to do with the roadworthiness of the vehicle carrying the cargo. Impounding the cargo would lead to all sorts of legal complications,” he said.
There will be a number of random stops and checks on all national roads. – Simon Zwane
An estimated 91 people have died while 275 have been injured in major collisions involving trucks and buses throughout the country since the beginning of the year.
