Road Carnage on the rise in South Africa

Vehicles flash past a homeless man begging at a busy intersection in Johannesburg. The sun has burned gold streaks into his stringy brown hair.
Donovan Hermans lives here, under trees at the side of Empire Road, warmed by filthy blankets reeking of exhaust fumes, cloaked in chemical smog.
He’s often the first person on the scene of the many crashes that happen here.

“I’ve seen bikes come down; bikers [killed]; I’ve seen cars trying to make turns wiped out by buses or [minibus] taxis; hell of a lot taxi accidents here,” said Hermans.
He recently saw a woman killed trying to cross the road.
“She’s walking on the island and her phone rings; she takes it out her pocket, answers her phone, takes one step into the street; bus hits her in the face, smashes her face completely. That bus was going too fast, it couldn’t stop,” Hermans explained.

South Africa’s Justice Project, a non-profit, monitors the country’s traffic system and its implementation of road laws.
Chairman Howard Dembovsky, a former police officer, said the injuries and deaths because of road smashes are a “national tragedy” that the country’s citizens and authorities aren’t taking seriously.

Senior Johannesburg Metro Police officer, Edna Mamonyane, said police don't have enough personnel to properly enforce the laws. “We’re doing our best, but manpower, that’s the issue," she said. "We need more officers on the roads.”
According to Justice Project research, there are now 11 million licensed drivers in South Africa.
“We only have 120,000 kilometers of paved roads," Dembovsky said. "Crowding so many millions of vehicles into that, without strong law enforcement and good planning, is looking for even bigger trouble than we’re already in.”