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Arrive Alive: SA's road safety website

ArriveAlive.co.za was started by one man in 2003 who was determined to make a difference.

Johan Jonck, an attorney who is based in the Free State, started ArriveAlive.co.za in his own capacity 10 years ago, after losing his mother and a friend in separate car accidents.

Jonck's vision for the site is "to develop an effective road safety information portal that will enhance awareness of road safety and save lives". He says the site is "a personal commitment towards creating road safety awareness in memory of my mom who died in a road traffic crash on the 3rd of December 1972".

The site complements the government's Arrive Alive campaign, and was endorsed by the Department of Transport in 2007. It is funded entirely by the private sector.

• Arrive Alive
• Mobile site: www.arrivealive.mobi
• Blog: www.roadsafety.co.za
• The Department of Transport

The Department of Transport launched the Arrive Alive campaign in 1997, after a South African delegation visited Australia to investigate road safety best practice in Victoria state.

Today, the Arrive Alive campaigns are an important part of the Department of Transport's road traffic safety projects.

ArriveAlive.co.za aims to supplement and support the work done by the government and covers road safety-related topics ranging from vehicle and driver fitness, drunken driving, aggressive driving, drowsiness and speeding to and the safety of other roads users, including pedestrians and cyclists.

South African motorists can also contribute to a growing pool of information – on hazardous road conditions, on bad drivers – aimed at increasing awareness of road safety and reducing the number of deaths on the country's roads.

Users can find out what to do in case of an emergency or accident – and visitors to South Africa will also find the site useful, with easy to find information on trip planning and hiring a car in South Africa.

• Visit the Arrive Alive blog: roadsafety.co.za/a>

Reporting bad driving

You can report bad drivers, unsafe vehicles and reckless and negligent driver behaviour, as well as fraud and corruption issues related to the traffic sphere by calling the national traffic call centre.

• Report bad driving and road conditions: 0861 400 800

South Africans can register via the website as "voluntary traffic observers", and make online submissions on bad driving. These registrations and reports are delivered directly to the Department of Transport's national traffic call centre.

"When the same people appear regularly [in reports on bad driving], the documentation can be provided to the prosecuting authority for analysis and investigation for possible legal action," Jonck told ITWeb.

"The reports on bad driving from the website show there is a lot of goodwill among the public, and the need to make a contribution."

• Report bad driving
• Register as a voluntary traffic observer

Reporting hazardous road conditions

Road users can also report on road conditions such as potholes, missing traffic signs and flooding via the website.

These reports are delivered via email to the Department of Transport's call centre, which relays the information to departments of roads, public works and transport countrywide.

"We need to use all technology available, and it makes sense that it is much easier to report hazardous road conditions once at the office or at home than having to contact a call centre while driving," Jonck said.

• Report on hazardous road conditions

Expert answers

Road users are encouraged to “ask the experts” via the website on technical topics. These experts provide specialised knowledge to members of the public on licensing, testing, enforcement, road freight, legislation and safe driving and the answers are added to the website as well as the blog.

• Ask the expert

Information portal

Jonck says that it's important that the road safety message reaches an audience beyond those with access to the internet. To this end, the site makes information easily available to information providers, such as newspapers, magazines and publishers of school textbooks.

"The internet can be used effectively to create an information portal for the wider distribution of road safety messages and creation of awareness of road safety," says Jonck.

• Find Arrive Alive on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArriveAlive.co.za
• Follow Arrive Alive on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/@_ArriveAlive
SAinfo reporter
Reviewed: September 2013
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