Traffic safety information in South Africa : how to improve the National Accident Register. Submitted to the National Department of Transport, Republic of South Africa and the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, The Netherlands.

This report describes a project that was carried out to investigate ways and means to improve the problems experienced with the South African National Accident Register (NAR) system, and to determine a long term strategy on road safety information in South Africa. Within the framework of the Road Safety Working Group of the South African Netherlands Transport Forum (SANTF), this project was carried out by the Dutch SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research and the South African based research institute CSIR Transportek. In the report, it is emphasised that, generally, a broader perspective is needed of the required information to improve road safety. Clearly an effective accident registration is at the heart of this broader perspective. In the long term, however, other data, besides accident data, is needed to improve the effectiveness of traffic safety policies. The study team has formulated a number of recommendations to improve the current accident registration system in South Africa. Based on its analysis, the study team recommends to consider the accident registration system as one comprehensive system and to consider any proposal for the components of the system from this perspective. Therefore, a central management of the accident registration system has to be installed, under the leadership of the Ministry of Transport and with the co-operation of all actors involved. Furthermore, the study team recommends to finance the NAR system by public means, and to prevent the system from being dependent on incidental income.