FOOD delivery scooter drivers shared their horrid experiences on the road with officials from the SAPS, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department (EMPD) and the Transport Education and Training Authority (TETA) during a transport awareness campaign held at the East Rand Mall on Friday.
One of these is Promise Jimmy, who said one of his colleagues was killed during a hijacking of his motorbike.
“My friend and colleague was hijacked and killed for his motorbike. We as drivers are always living in fear and harassed by taxi drivers who think they can do as they please with us because we are scooter drivers,” he said.
According to TETA, more and more scooter drivers are being killed on the roads due to lack of awareness and recklessness on the roads which is why the department has reached out to deliver the message of awareness to delivery drivers.
TETA’s special projects unit manager, Haremakale Ramakhetheng, said the campaign was a response to recent statistics released by Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga over the festive period.
“We are here today to highlight the plight of motorbike drivers. Realising the 2023/24 festive season road traffic statistics, the minister said during the period under review, more than 1 184 fatal crashes were recorded compared to 2022/23, when 12 212 crashes were recorded ‒ with Gauteng as a province recording at least a 7.6% increase. It is for this reason that our campaign is geared towards making motorbike drivers, especially delivery scooter drivers, aware of the dangers of being on the road, because they are part of our valued stakeholders,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of the Ekurhuleni JMPD, Constable Manete Gano said the department was always ready to assist scooter drivers and urged them to report their “horrific” incidents to law enforcement agencies.
“We are concerned by the statistics that show a rise in accidents involving motorbike drivers, because most of the motor vehicle drivers do not observe the rules of indicating when they change lanes, which results in fatalities involving scooter drivers,” she said.
TETA has indicated that since the introduction of the food delivery services, it has realised that most of the incidents on the road involve scooter drivers.
“It is for this reason that the motorbike safety campaign is important in our many initiatives. We have also realised that this sector of the economy is important and growing, and want to ensure them of our full support,” Gano said.
The Star