Report Bad Driving Background

How many times have you said: "there is no traffic officer around when needed", or how often have you wished you could report a blatant traffic offence, an un-roadworthy vehicle or aggressive, irresponsible, negligent or reckless driving behaviour, or bad driver?

In order to provide for this need it was decided to establish a National Traffic Call Centre (NTCC) to give easy access to drivers, pedestrians and public road transport passengers on buses and minibus taxis to report bad drivers, unsafe vehicles and reckless and negligent driver behaviour; as well as fraud and corruption within the traffic situation.

The Call Centre will also provide the general public with the opportunity to report moving violations and overloading as well as fraud and corruption at Vehicle Testing Stations and Driving Licence Testing Centres. Incidents and accidents can also be reported and the Centre is also a source of limited road traffic information.

Well, this is now your chance to become an active participant in making our roads safer for all road users. The Road to Safety Strategy 2002-2005, amongst other, aims to reduce inconsiderate, negligent and intimidating or aggressive behaviour on our roads, as well as to acknowledge and encourage a culture of responsible road usage. Your participation is therefore vital to the success of this project. Remember, the road belongs to all of us, let us use it safely together.

Purpose of the Call Centre:

The purpose of the Call Centre, as identified in the Road to Safety 2001-2005 Strategy and as part of the Arrive Alive Road Safety Campaign is to, with the assistance of commuters and road users in general, amongst others identify:

• the occurrence of road traffic offences on the road and street system
• the types of offences committed by these road users
• the time and location of the most frequent offences
• fraud, bribery and corruption in traffic management, control and law-enforcement
• Identify and report bad drivers and bad driving

with the main objectives to:

• promote voluntary compliance with traffic legislation
• reduce traffic contraventions and road rage
• improve safe and courteous road user behaviour
• increase the quality and broaden the scope of traffic information regarding hazardous or potential hazardous locations, offence and incident/accident prone areas, etc
• to identify regular traffic offenders
• inform operators and owners of freight and public passenger vehicles of traffic offences committed or poor behaviour and road discipline displayed by their drivers.

Information to be reported:

To make the best use of the information provided by the public to the Call Centre, the following minimum information is required:

• The name of the Province in which the incident/offence was detected (Gauteng, Free State, etc)
• In Built-up Areas and Cities and Towns : the name of the City or Town and Suburb as well as the Name of the Street or Junction between two Streets (For example : Pretoria, Arcadia, Church Street between Hamilton and Beatrix Streets OR Pretoria, Lynnwood, at Junction of Lynnwood Road and Atterbury Road.
• On Inter-City and Inter-Provincial Roads : The number of the road and the distance to the nearest City or Town with a direction. (For example : National Route N3 between Villiers and Harrismith, approximately 13 kilometres south of Villiers.)
• The Day, Date and Time of the Incident : For example : Wednesday, 5 November 2003 at 06:45.
• Detail of the Vehicle observed : Registration number, make, model (if possible) and colour. (For example : ABC 123 GP, Mercedes Benz, E240, Gold).
• Detail of the Incident : For example:
  • driver ignored red traffic signal
  • driver overtook across a solid barrier line
  • failure to indicate intension to change lanes
  • turn from wrong lane
  • Etc.
• Also:
  • report accidents, incidents and other emergencies - these types of calls will immediately be relayed from the National Call Traffic Centre to the relevant traffic and emergency services to be followed-up, verified and responded to as soon as possible.
  • provide traffic information on traffic lights out of order, traffic congestion, poor road conditions, missing road signs, animals on the road, etc.
  • report on traffic fraud and corruption
  • report on good, helpful and courteous driver behaviour and friendly and helpful traffic officers
  • request information on road and traffic conditions, etc

All reports must please be specific. If reports on reckless and inconsiderate behaviour are submitted, please provide factual reasons on why you think a driver behaved recklessly or inconsiderately. A prepared report form for use by recorded Traffic Observers is attached hereto. If you are not yet recorded as a Traffic Observer please do so and submit your Application form together with your first report.

Use of the reported information:

The information collected by the Centre is, amongst others, utilised for:

• advising the registered owner of the vehicle by letter of the nature and location of the alleged offence together with a road safety message;
• identification of regular offenders (after they have been reported a number of times) and request senior Provincial and Local Authority traffic officers to meet with such persons and explain the unacceptability of their regular contraventions and the dangers involved. The information collected on regular offenders will also be correlated with traffic offence notices issued to them by the traffic authorites;
• prepare and distribute reports to the SAPS and the relevant Traffic Authority on the routes and/or locations where stolen vehicles and vehicles with false registration plates were observed; where regular traffic offences occur; the nature of such offences, etc so that appropriate law-enforcement can be planned and undertaken at such places, as well as cases of fraud and corruption were observed, etc;
• identification of the most frequently reported traffic offences and comparing these with the reported contributory factors to traffic accidents at specific locations, etc;
• identification of courteous and helpful road users and traffic officers.

Recording of Traffic Observers:

To be recorded as a Voluntary Public Traffic Observer (TO), please complete the attached form provided.

Once your detail is recorded and you are registered as a TO, you will be provided with a toll free number at which reports can be submitted telephonically. Recording your information to participate in this project is required in order to :

• eliminate possible victimisation of innocent road users and drivers for devious and/or unknown reasons;
• elimination of hoax and abusive calls;
• as well as eliminating the need to record the detail of callers during subsequent reports etc, thus, as a time-saving measure.
• details of TO's are particularly required when calls may need to be followed-up on the provision of emergency services; i.e ambulances, fire brigades, etc in cases of indents and accidents.

In this regard each report will be linked to the ID number of the Traffic Observer who submitted the report. Detail of Traffic Observers will be kept confidential.

Duties and Responsibilities of Traffic Observers:

• The participation by members of the Public in this project is entirely voluntary.
• As a voluntary public Traffic Observer (TO), you will be required only to observe, record and submit the required information on the attached form.
• A TO will undertake this voluntary task as inconspicuously as possible, for their own safety and security reasons, and will at no time be entitled to stop and/or confront a suspected or alleged traffic offender.
• Persons registered as Traffic Observers (TO's) will not be compensated in any manner for this voluntary service.
• TO's will not receive privileges of any nature and no special markings for their vehicles will be provided (for their own safety and security reasons).
• As it is not the intention of this project to provide a means of pursuing formal charges against suspected or alleged traffic offenders, no report submitted to the National Traffic Call Centre will be regarded as a formal charge and processed as such. Any TO wishing to lay formal charges against a fellow road user must follow the normal procedures and approach their nearest Traffic Authority or Police Station for further advice in this regard.
• The Department of Transport, any Provincial and/or Local Road or Traffic Authority, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the personnel of the National Traffic Call Centre do not accept any responsibility for any claim of whatever nature that may arise as a result of this voluntary participation by the public in the promotion of road traffic safety.
• A TO will indemnify the National Department of Transport against, and hold it exempt from any claims, all losses and/or damages of whatever nature, from any cause arising, which may be sustained or suffered as a result of acting and reporting as a Traffic Observer in support of the Arrive Alive Road Safety Campaign.
• By submitting an application form to be registered as a TO includes an undertaking not to institute any action or claim any damages from the Department of Transport, any Provincial and/or Local Road or Traffic Authority, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the personnel of the National Traffic Call Centre as a result of any loss or damage consequent upon or related to any action or actions taken as a TO.

Owning a vehicle or having a driving licence are not prerequisites for participation in this project. However, if you are in possession of a vehicle or a driving licence, please provide the requested information in this regard.

Direct Contact Information:

Fax Number: 012 665 6085
Tel Number: 012 665 6075
E-mail address: ntcc@rtmc.co.za

Also visit the following sections:

Application form for voluntary public traffic observer
Report Bad Driving
Report Road Conditions