Citation

Noah M, Mbatha T, Ngcobo H. Proc. Road Saf. Four Continents Conf. 2005; 13: 16p.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Conference Sponsor)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Intense pedestrian activity adjacent to some sections of the South African national road network where unprotected road users are exposed to greater risk of being involved in traffic collisions has been the concern of the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL). Against this background, SANRAL designed with technical support from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) a holistic road safety program anchored in education, skill s transfer and training of teachers, school children and the community leaders. CSIR Transportek was then tasked to implement this road safety education program in some of the South African provinces that included KwaZulu-Natal and Free State. The University Interdisciplinary Accident Research Centre (UNIARC) of KwaZulu-Natal was tasked with the main assignment of evaluating this Road Safety Program. Out of the 36 schools that were involved in the Road Safety Program in the Hlabisa District, a random selection of 17 schools was included in the evaluation of this program. This total sample was further stratified into nine (9) primary and eight (8) high schools. A random selection of estimated 20 pupils from each school was selected from program participants for interviews. Finally, a total of 398 pupils were interviewed on checking the validated questionnaires for data analysis. Twenty five (25) teachers, ninety-four (94) community members and three (3) Deputy Education Specialist inspectors participated in the survey. Results indicate that the Little and Informed Centers (LICs) for teaching road safety made a major impact as teachers view it as sharpened awareness on road safety (68%) and improved evasive skills (32%). Community members (85%) and pupils (67%) also concurred with teachers that LICs promote commendable road safety behavior. The LICs are also reported favorably for the identification of red spots (60%) within the immediate environment of the school. This paper further demonstrates that these potent LICs benefits seem to be flawed by the apparent lack of road infrastructure sympathetic to vulnerable road users to practice their learnt and known road safety skills. It further supports theories that argue road safety education imparted in a classroom is not enough as other strategies such as tweaking the road environment such that vulnerable road users can practice their road safety skills.