Powerful Video Drives Home Easter Traffic Safety Message in SA

My best friend died in a field of cosmos one Easter in South Africa. She was thrown from the back of the car in which she was sitting, as it hurtled into a broken-down vehicle ahead of it. She was on her way back to Joburg from the bush, and admiring the flowers seconds before they crashed. Maybe the driver turned to look. I don’t know. He can’t talk about it. He’s been such a mess ever since the crash. I do know she was not wearing a safety belt.

And as South Africa gears up for yet another Easter Weekend, a powerful video has been produced by the Western Cape government, highlighting the need to buckle up.

The video is brutal. Like the reality.

The government’s Safely Home campaign calls on people to #BeTheChange…”Always buckle up. Don’t become a wrecking ball to other passengers.”

According to the South African Traffic Department, passengers and pedestrians together constituted 70% of people who die on the roads over the Easter period. This year, they say, passengers not wearing seat belts will be heavily fined.

Watch Video: The First Kiss #Be The Change – Safely Home

Warning. This video is graphic and brutal. Like the reality.

https://youtu.be/JhUN9Gv0M9Y

At the launch of the 2016 Easter Road Safety Campaign in Limpopo on Friday, MEC Mapula Mokaba-Phukwana, said traffic officers have been instructed to adopt zero tolerance to traffic law violations during the Easter period. Over two thirds of road crashes are apparently preceded by a violation of traffic laws.

She also said: “A six year trend analysis of crashes and fatalities over the Easter period has indicated that between 2010 and 2015, there was an average of 196 crashes recorded per year. These crashes resulted in an average of 260 deaths per year, one too many.” Last year it was 287.

South Africa has committed itself to the implementation of the United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety with the intention to halve fatalities on our roads by the year 2020.

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters also appeared on an episode of Muvhango on Monday evening, urging motorists to ensure that their vehicles are roadworthy before travelling. She also stressed the importance of buckling up, driving safely, not using cell phones and not speeding…to avoid carnage on the roads.

The Western Cape government, who released the above video, say that buckling up is important not only for saving lives…but also because “road deaths and serious injuries are costing South Africa R306 billion each year, and helping to keep millions in poverty, it is also the right thing to do for your community and for your country.”