More than 25 000 commuters across South Africa have been engaged in the Automobile Association’s (AA) #ISeeYou campaign, aimed at making pedestrians more visible on the country’s roads.
The national road safety campaign was launched on 26 June in collaboration with the Federation Internationale de l’ Automobile (FIA), Ford and Michelin. The FIA funding was made possible through its Road Safety Grant programme, an international road safety initiative which aims to reduce road deaths throughout the world.
“Through our visibility campaign, which kicked off in June, we want to raise awareness of the dangers of being a pedestrian in South Africa, and urge more pedestrians to make themselves visible while on the road. It is a small step but, we believe, an important one giving the alarming statistics on pedestrian fatalities on our roads,” the AA says.
One in three fatalities on South African roads are pedestrians. Figures from the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) show that 14071 people died on South African roads in 2016. More than 5400 of these deaths, or nearly 40% were pedestrians. Pedestrians are by far the most vulnerable road user group in the country.
Apart from print, digital, radio and television advertisements which spread the message of visibility, the campaign was also ‘rolled out’ through various in-person events at taxi ranks around the country. During these events, close on 13 000 adult and child visibility sashes, as well as high visibility bag tags, were distributed.
From the end of June, when the campaign began, to the beginning of August, teams of #ISeeYou representatives spoke to 25 846 commuters at nine taxi ranks throughout the county in Gauteng, the Eastern and Western Cape, the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga.
Throughout the campaign commuters were asked about pedestrian visibility
“Feedback from the campaign is that commuters are grateful such an initiative was started. They say visibility is especially important for the elderly, and for children on their way to, and back from, school. We are thrilled with this positive response, and will continue making sashes available as more people donate to our campaign,” the AA notes.
We ran a visibility campaign survey in the month of October. View the results here
For more information on the campaign, or to make a donation, visit www.donations.aa.co.za.
AA Public Affairs
011 799 1126 or 083 386 6954
