Drink driving cup runneth over
Tristan Wiggill
2009-10-05
The opening of a second Alcohol Testing Centre in Gauteng, this time in Randburg, is certainly an event worth celebrating.
So, ladies and gentlemen: I ask that you raise your glass to the monument that so effortlessly embodies the failings of SA’s current anti-drink and drive campaigns...
In fact, the facility only came about as a result of the immense strain carried by the insurance industry. This is largely thanks to government, who’s inability to reduce the road death toll has forced the South African Insurance Association (SAIA) to act. And not a moment too soon it must be said...
Credit must also go to Business Against Crime South Africa and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department, without whom the centre would never have seen the light of day.
Designed to process watertight drunk driving cases, (an entirely new phenomenon), the Randburg Alcohol Testing Centre uses sophisticated Drägar Alcotest machines to record breath alcohol concentrations.
It is open 24-hours a day, seven days a week, which gives us an indication of just how many drunks take to the roadways everyday. The Drägar machines are made in Germany and cost in the region of R120 000 each. They are calibrated in a laboratory based in Midrand and form the basis of the state’s case against suspects.
There are about 15 of these machines in operation in the country today and, subsequent to November 2008, have been tested on 3 800 people, two thirds of whom were arrested.
By comparison, Gerrie Gerneke, of the JMPD admitted at the opening that, “not a single prosecution was made in nine years using intoximeters”. This was primarily due to a host of blood sample problems, bribery and corruption and the unavailability of prosecutors.
The Drägar machines eliminate many of these legal loopholes and are admissible in court. But while insurance members have recognised a problem in terms of accident related claims linked to alcohol, I fail to understand why the industry has taken so long to do something constructive in the interests of road safety.
And they need to do a lot more, because road-going drunks cost the country roughly R38 billion a year! As pathetic as all this is, alcohol is not the only problem facing insurers. The lack of compulsory roadworthiness testing and the general poor attitude towards road safety of drivers amplifies the crises.
The growing vehicle population and inability of road infrastructure to cope with the increase in traffic density compounds matters further, while road sign and road surface deterioration doesn’t help much either.
Exorbitant car prices have also negatively affected the insurance industry, by ageing the vehicles in SA’s car park. This places more lives at risk, heightens insurance risks and, as a result, ups insurance premiums.
And as long as there is a lack of visible policing, motorists will continue to have a spirit of unlawfulness when it comes to driving, including driving under the influence of alcohol - not to mention other narcotics!
Statistics show that 90% of all road accidents are preceded by a road traffic offence. This is why there are no such things as “minor traffic offences”.
When you take this blatant disregard for basic road rules and integrate it with the estimated 481 000 unlicensed vehicles, 377 000 un-roadworthy wrecks and 970 000 expired licences, can anybody truly expect roads to become safer?
It’s a deeply disturbing reality that while around 36 people lose their lives in road accidents every day, approximately 20 people are permanently disabled and a further 7 000 are left maimed annually, road safety is still not a national priority.
South Africa cannot afford to continue with the current appalling losses when far more can be done to address the widespread extermination of the populous.
It’s time insurance company’s provided additional services to protect their paying clients. After all, it could help save them large sums of money, and what better reason would they need?
