“I must commend all those who participated in the pilot District Safety Plan (DSP) that was launched in the Overberg on 1 October 2016 and was carried through to 16 January this year. Your collective effort over the period has ensured a significant decline in road fatalities in the area, specifically the target top priority categories of pedestrians and children.”
This statement was given by Mr Kenny Africa, Western Cape Traffic Chief and Programme Director at the post-season evaluation of the DSP that was hosted by the Overstrand Municipality at their premises in Hermanus on Friday, 27 January 2017.
Present at the event were representatives of the key role players, i.e. the Overberg municipalities of Cape Agulhas, Theewaterskloof and Overstrand; as too the SAPS Overberg Cluster.
The DSP was designed by encompassing all socio-economic factors, government resources, as well as the road environment itself. Relevant law enforcement agencies, including the SAPS, Provincial Traffic Services and the three Municipal Traffic Services were then integrated. Moreover, education efforts with mass marketing were strongly driven to ensure the greatest impact on public awareness and perception. To that end, Danny Cat, the provincial road safety mascot, has been prominent in this initial success.
The results for Quarter 3: 2016/17, as compared to the targets set, and Quarter 3: 2015/16 were as follows:
| District Safety Plan Quarter 3 2016/17 (1 Oct – 31 Dec 2016) | 2015/16 Actual | 2016/17 Target | 2016/17 Actual | 2019/20 Target |
| All Fatalities | 21 | 14 | 11 | 10 |
| Pedestrians | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Children 0 – 14 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Despite the successes listed, Africa pointed out that considerably more work needs to be done to guarantee the continued effectiveness of the DSP in the way forward. “We need to really enforce the message that booze and roads in particular don’t mix. Our efforts, if applied correctly, will lead to a change in attitudes and behaviour amongst road users and ultimately result in the end goal of less carnage on our motorways,” said Africa.