Poor Road Marking and Road Collision in South Africa

when concering the traffic road construction and the road marking, a terrible record noted me the implications of road marking. Poor road marking contributed greatly on the road collision in south africa.

During 1998 a total of 511605 collisions had been reported and included in the official South African statistics. This included 4270 fatal ollisions in cities and towns and 2990 fatal collisions in other areas (say rural). Casualties during this period numbered 129672 of which 4888 fatalities occurred in cities and towns and 4180 fatalities in other areas. The number of casualties on South African roads and streets during 1998 nevertheless, was markedly lower than previous years and was of a similar magnitude as the number recorded in 1993.

The typical pattern of road accidents was retained from that of the previous years. 53% (3840) of all fatal collisions occurred at night. 363 rural fatal collisions were the result of lane changing, overtaking or swerving. 238 fatal head on collisions occurred outside cities and towns killing 626 people. A very disturbing statistic is the fact that some 92% (2761) of all fatal collisions in rural areas occurred on general road sections other than at intersections or at points of control. In these collisions a total of 3852 people had been killed. All in all the total cost of collisions were stimated to amount to R13 446million during the year, or an incredible amount of 36.8 million per day!
The function of road markings is so significant in assisting drivers to avoid accdents in such rules:
Selection of a route (e.g. route numbers painted on the road)
Selection of specific manoeuvres (e.g. directional arrows)
Control of specific manoeuvres like overtaking (e.g. no-overtaking lines)
Selection and control of elementary manoeuvres like the lateral positioning within a lane (e.g. edge and lane lines).