Road accidents and policing in the freight sector cost the Western Cape economy close to R3 billion per year. According to Corinne Gallant, deputy director of freight in the provincial department of transport and public works, this cost impacted industry, government and the public and was considered too high. “Crashes alone cost the economy around R2.2 billion every year. With more than 90% of freight in the province moving on road it is the lifeblood of this economy making it imperative that we address challenges such as road freight safety.” She said crashes involving heavy vehicles had become a concern. Since 2016, a total of 68 people had been killed, 267 seriously injured and another 1158 injured in freight-related accidents in the province. “Several factors such as driver fatigue, speeding and vehicle condition contribute to these accidents.” According to Paul Nordegren of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) South Africa has one of the highest rates of fatal truck crashes per 100 million kilometres travelled in the world. “Speeding is one of the biggest challenges for operators to control,” he said. Another major contributor was roadworthiness. “The roadworthiness of vehicles in this country is a crisis. We recently on the N3 stopped the first ten trucks that passed us by and eight of them failed a roadworthiness test.” Whilst this was not a scientific study per se, Nordegren said proper studies had revealed similar results.
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Crashes alone cost the economy around R2.2 billion every year. – Corinne Gallant