Traffic Safety Information in South Africa

How to improve the National Accident Register
Auteur(s)
Sluis (editor), Jan van der
Jaar
In the framework of the Road Safety Working Group of the South African Netherlands Transport Forum (SANTF) a project has been carried out to determine a long term strategy on road safety information and to investigate ways and means to improve the problems experienced with the National Accident Register (NAR) system. The project has been carried out by the SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research from the Netherlands and the South African based research institute CSIR Transportek. The first phase of the project consisted of a questionnaire concerning the state of the art of road safety information and road accident registration. The questionnaire has been completed for both the Dutch and the South African situation. In the second phase of the project a framework for road safety information in South Africa was developed. During the third phase field visits were conducted to collect practical knowledge on the current accident reporting system in South Africa. Based on the information gathered in previous phases, a one day stakeholders workshop was organised to share the researchers' experiences and to discuss some preliminary findings. In this 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 National Accident Register (NAR) system by public means, and to prevent the system from being dependant on incidental income.
Rapportnummer
R-2001-18
Pagina's
34 + 66 pp.
Gepubliceerd door
SWOV, Leidschendam

SWOV-publicatie

Dit is een publicatie van SWOV, of waar SWOV een bijdrage aan heeft geleverd.