FleetWatch has often spoken of the ‘heart’ of the trucking industry and once again we have found an example where this ‘heart’ is beating strong. This time it is AfintaPart, a Midas Group-owned truck parts distributor that supplies genuine parts from OE and quality guaranteed replacement parts for light and medium commercial vehicles.
AfintaPart has forked out R200 000 in donating 150 booster car seats to the Wheel Well store in Brightwater Commons Shopping Centre, Randburg. This welcome news could not have come at a better time as thousands of families will be out on the roads travelling over the Easter weekend. The donation will help many of those families who do not have booster car seats to buckle their little ones up during the journey.
“Road accidents are said to be the single biggest killer of young people over the age of 10 with three children under the age of 15 dying on our roads every day. There is a critical need for booster car seats to be made available wherever possible as they have been scientifically proven to reduce the need for hospitalisation by 60%,” says Wayne Lodder, director of AfintaPart.
What FleetWatch likes about this donation is that AfintaPart, a trucking orientated company, has focussed on a non-trucking area of concern to make an impact. What many people tend to forget is that within trucking companies around the country, there are thousands of employees who never get behind the wheel of a truck but do get behind the wheels of their cars every day – and with their families. They too need care.
Releasing road death statistics in January, shortly after the high-season festive period, Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters reported that 1 376 people were killed over the festive season alone, a staggering number when considering that South Africa’s road deaths rank twice as high as developed countries like North America and Australia.
“What many people don’t realise is that the economic cost of road fatalities over an extended period is far more of a burden than we realise,” says Lodder. “With the figure being an estimated R307-billion each year, this is the same – if not marginally more – than what Transnet has budgeted for in its seven-year infrastructure development programme. Resultant life-long disabilities and the appropriate need for medical care after road accidents are factors that many do not realise must also be accounted for.”
AfintaPart, we salute you.