New driver's licence test

In a bid to cut the carnage on South African roads the National Department of Transport is to make major changes to the driver's licence test next year.

The pilot project to turn out more skillful and safer drivers will kick off in KwaZulu-Natal in February or March next year and will be extended to the other provinces by the end of the year.

Spokesperson Collen Msibi said the department would work with driving schools and licence station inspectors to make them aware of the new rules and tests incorporated into advanced manuals.

He said that at present driving schools were more interested in getting drivers to just pass their tests on the specific day but with a more specialised and advanced driving school manual, they would help to "drastically" improve road safety.

Drivers would be taught many of the skills encountered in the real world on the road such as dealing with situations when robots stop working, overtaking safely, reversing out of difficult places to get on to busy roads, dealing with busy intersections, driving in wet and rainy weather and manoeuvring in traffic congestion.

"Rules on overtaking will be emphasised as we believe each and every driver needs to be able to do this without any problems. We want to be sure that when a person walks away with that piece of paper containing their drivers' licence, they can indeed call themselves drivers," Msibi said.

"KwaZulu-Natal may have it introduced by February or March next year shortly after a week-long awareness campaign is carried out. All driving schools will have to comply with the manual by law.

"We are confident that these new rules will help create safer drivers who are able to deal with situations faced on a daily basis," he said.

"The present K53 manual contains just the basic methods of teaching drivers and we want to move away from that," he said.

The Department has also consulted with traffic authorities to get their input on "problem areas" and ways in which additional testing can be incorporated to improve driving standards.

Other provinces like Gauteng and the Western Cape will have the new manuals introduced by the end of the year, according to Msibi.

"We will be reviewing the manuals every two to three years to make sure they keep up to the standards," he said.

Local traffic authorities have praised the department's decision, saying that the number of accidents and fatalities caused by unskilled drivers were "frightening".

Durban Metro Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Thozamile Tyala said they were glad about the implementation of the new manuals.

"We have found that many accidents on our roads could have been avoided if the drivers were skilled and equipped to deal with a situation where they had to avoid an obstacle or a car or taxi that swerves into their lanes.

"There have been incidents where motorists dangerously swerved into oncoming lanes and crashed into other vehicles.

"Currently driving schools concentrate more on the operation of vehicles rather than the traffic laws. When traffic lights go faulty motorists just all want to rush and go forward. However, by following some simple rules, they will then be able to ensure that traffic flows smoothly."

Road Traffic Inspectorate spokesperson Rajen Chinaboo said the standards of driving needed to be improved as this would contribute to safer roads.

"Judging by the numbers of collisions caused by drivers failing to carry out simple techniques like overtaking safely or swerving to avoid a pedestrian, we need to have a more specialised way of teaching drivers.

"The improved manual will definitely assist in creating more order on our roads and hopefully reduce the number of collisions."

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