Lerato Lelia – In the effort to curb the high death toll on South African roads as well as the high number of spinal cord injuries due to these accidents, the QuadPara Association of South Africa (QASA) has launched a campaign to encourage motorists to wear their seat belts this Easter.

According to Arrive Alive more than 250 people sustain a spinal cord injury through road accidents per annum in South Africa, many due to not wearing their seatbelts. “If you’re in a road crash and you are not using your seatbelt, the chance of getting a spinal cord injury or a catastrophic injury is far greater. So we’ve come up with the slogan “Buckle up, we don’t want new members!,” said the CEO of QASA, Ari Seirlis.

QASA developed the ‘Easter road safety campaign’ to warn people about devastating road injuries during the Easter holiday period.

Members of SAQA affected by road accidents that have resulted in spinal cord injuries will be deployed at garage stations on the main roads in the country. These include stations in Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Kwazulu-Natal. The members will be speaking to motorists about their own experiences and consequences of not wearing a seatbelt.

Seirlis added that the campaign runs all year during high traffic volume periods that include June and December.

The International Transport Forum’s (ITF) latest Road Safety Annual Report, states that the rate of South African motorists wearing seatbelts is very low at 67.5 % in comparison to other countries.

SAQA is also working on further developing another campaign that will focus on reducing incidents of texting and driving, which Seirlis states is fast becoming one of the leading causes of car crashes.