THE Northern Cape is the largest of our
country’s nine provinces, comprising 30.5%
of South Africa’s land area, with 3 257km of
national roads, 4 989km of provincial surfaced
roads and 22 746km of provincial gravel roads.
It is bordered nationally by the Free State,
North West, Eastern Cape and Western Cape,
and internationally by Botswana and Namibia.
While this province sees fewer fatalities on
its roads than other provinces, road safety
remains a core priority. So while it is worth
noting that there may not be as many fatal
crashes on Northern Cape roads, there is
still a large number of incidents recorded. In
a study conducted between 2014 and 2016,
the Northern Cape has recorded in excess of
26 000 incidents. Approximately 800 of those
were fatal.
In 2010, the UN declared 2011-2020 the
Decade of Action for Road Safety. One of the
key pillars of the organisation’s Global Plan is
to improve post-crash response.
Robust road incident management supports
this pillar. The Northern Cape has six Centralised
Communication Centres (CCCs) that operate
24 hours a day. Their role is to dispatch all
relevant services required at the scene of a
traffi c incident. When an incident occurs on the
road, a set of coordinated activities is initiated
via the CCCs to minimise the primary and
secondary effects of the incident, as well as
to restore normal road capacity and safety as
soon as possible.
A range of different responders are
required to converge on incident scenes, from
emergency services and police to fi re and
traffi c offi cers. In line with SANRAL’s vision to
contribute to safer roads, the Road Incident
Management System (RIMS) was established
to coordinate all responders, making the
management of incident scenes more effi cient,
safe and successful.
Non-emergency services – which include
SANRAL, towing services, spill clean-up teams
and specialist services – focus on minimising
the impact on other road users by cleaning up
and restoring the site quickly.
The distances between towns in the
Northern Cape are vast. Should an incident
occur that sees a truck lose its load and cause
a road to be closed to traffi c, commuters,
businesses, and other services are affected
for long periods. While such an incident may
not be life-threatening, delayed response
from emergency services, clean-up crew and
road rehabilitation teams can have serious
consequences.
SANRAL remains steadfast in its commitment
to not only design, fi nance, improve, manage
and maintain the national road network, but to
also constantly invest in technology and tools
that will improve user experience on our roads,
with incidents causing as little disruption as
possible.