Learners and teachers from schools across the Western Cape have participated in pickets in support of a United Nations (UN) call to have the speed limit around schools and in residential areas reduced to 30 km/h.
The call is part of the UN’s 6th Global Road Safety Week (GRSW) which runs from 17 to 23 May 2021. The theme this year is “Streets for Life”, backed with a call for a 30 km/h speed limit to be the norm for cities, towns and villages worldwide.
Today, 19 May, learners and teachers from Umangaliso, Sobambisana, Ntwasahlobo, and Sakumlandela Primary Schools, learners from Usasazo High School, officials of the provincial government’s Directorate: Road Safety Management (RSM), and Childsafe SA activists took part in a picket in Bongiso Drive and Mew Way in Khayelitsha. Learners, teachers and RSM officials also picketed today at Mooi-Uitsig Primary School in Ceres.
Yesterday, pickets were held at Hexvallei Secondary School in De Doorns near a spot on the N1 where pedestrians are often killed by speeding motorists. On the same day learners from Umyezo Wama Apile Primary and Groenberg High picketed at the N2 entrance to Grabouw, another dangerous location for pedestrians.
Tomorrow, 20 May, learners from Belhar Primary School in Cape Town will picket near Arctotis Way. On the same day RSM will launch a Junior Traffic Training Centre (JTTC) at the school. JTTCs are simulated traffic environments where young children are taught safe road mobility with the aim of preparing them for the dangerous of real traffic.
Also tomorrow, Avian Park Primary School learners in Worcester will picket at a point on the R43 near the school where a number of learners and young children have been knocked down and killed.
Yolande Baker, the Executive Director of Childsafe SA, says her organisation will work with Khayelitsha stakeholders to conduct a speed reduction research project along Bongiso Drive. Baker says Bongiso Drive is a busy road with a 60 km/h limit, despite thousands of children and pedestrians walking and playing in the road every day.
Nokuzola Letselebe, acting RSM deputy director for operations, says advocacy for reducing speed limits is in line with the findings of a research report by the Road Traffic Management Corporation that recommends a 30 km/h limit near schools and in residential areas.
Letselebe says global research, including research conducted at a school in Tshwane, showed a reduction in pedestrian deaths where the speed limit is 30 km/h.
Road traffic injuries (RTIs) consistently feature in the top 10 leading causes of death globally. Approximately 147 000 children aged 14 or younger lose their lives on the world’s roads every year. The 2018 World Health Organization (WHO) Global Status Report on Road Safety shows that RTIs are the world’s leading killer of children and young adults aged 5-29 years.
Pedestrian deaths in South Africa account for up to one-third of all deaths on the country’s roads annually. Between 2008 and 2017, a total of 48 350 pedestrians died on our roads.