This year’s Easter weekend road fatalities paint a grim picture. There was a nearly 40% increase in road fatalities compared to the same four-day weekend last year, with 185 fatal crashes that resulted in 225 deaths. Compared to last year, 59 more people lost their lives.

Minister for Transport, Sindisiwe Chikunga, points to human error as the main cause of crashes. These include speeding, unlicensed vehicles and drivers, not fastening seatbelts and driving with worn tyres.

In response to these statistics, Minister Chikunga plans to implement a 365-day road safety campaign where traffic policing will become a seven-day, 24-hour job but whether the resources are available for this to happen imminently remains to be seen.

The fact of the matter is that there are still many unroadworthy vehicles travelling on our roads with little enforcement of the rules or any desire to take these vehicles off our roads. I recently travelled from Kwa-Zulu Natal back home to Gauteng, into the evening, and it was frightening to see how many vehicles and trailers were travelling without lights or with only some of their lights working. Across our entire journey of 700km, we also only saw three law enforcement vehicles.

The Retail Motor Industry’s Vehicle Testing Association has for a long time been campaigning for the implementation of periodic testing of vehicles to be made mandatory as it is with large commercial vehicles. The implementation of periodic roadworthy testing into law would make it mandatory for older vehicles to pass a roadworthy test every two years. Let’s hope the new Minister of Transport can finally get legislation signed into law as I do believe it will go a long way in improving safety on our roads.

Even so, two years is a long time and vehicles that do high milage can deteriorate significantly during this time. In this month’s road safety column Ashraf Ismail highlights the importance of conducting thorough pre-trip inspections and the advantages thereof, which include safer roads and lower costs because fixing small issues before they become big problems is significantly more cost effective.

There is no doubt that the transport industry is under immense pressure and an exclusive interview with Vuyisani Titi, CEO of Lynx Transport Underwriting Managers unpacks the risk and insurance challenges facing heavy commercial vehicle operators, both in terms of vehicle assets and the goods they are carrying. Titi reveals some shocking statistics regarding the increases in SASRIA cover for loss or damage due to civil commotion, riots, strikes and terrorism recently with increases of as much as 1700% in some cases.

Amazingly the industry continues to fight back with the latest Ctrack Transport and Freight Index reaching its highest level since before last years Transnet strike, proof that the industry still has some fight in it, it seems.