In a ground-breaking move that will ensure increasing levels of efficiency and effectiveness in the management of road incidents, the South African National Roads Agency (SANRAL) has been tasked with overseeing the skills training and development of emergency services officers in Road Incident Management Systems (RIMS).
FleetWatch welcomes this news as with the spiraling accident rate on South Africa’s roads, we need many more skilled personnel than there are now to take charge of incidents and save lives. South Africa has a road death toll of 23.5 per 100 000 of the population which is way above the global average.
Apart from the loss of life and countless injuries, the high accident rate contributes to delays, bottlenecks and congestion in traffic flow. This is compounded by the time it takes emergency and enforcement services personnel to detect, activate response and reach the scene of crashes.
Personnel who are suitably qualified in RIMS will be able to implement prudent and innovative measures to deal with accidents swiftly and as efficiently as possible to maintain open roads and free traffic flow. In this regard, SANRAL has been accredited by the Transport Sector Education and Training Authority (TETA) to deliver the RIMS qualification.
Nomsa Modise, project manager for Social Economic Development and RIMS in SANRAL’s Eastern Region, will be in charge of RIMS skills training under the auspices of SANRAL. She says the RIMS qualification will be offered up to university level and will contribute to increasing levels of efficiency and effectiveness while also developing a common integrated and co-ordinated approach to transport or other related incident management.
“The focus of SANRAL is to promote skills development through skills programmes and other training interventions by means of recognised and accredited learning programmes. The RIMS skills training – which is mainly aimed at traffic officials, paramedics, police, military, fire departments and other emergency response services – will help to ensure the rapid detection of incidents, quick verification of the extent and type of incident, followed by the deployment of the appropriate resources,” she says.
Modise, who has spearheaded the development of the incident management qualification in the form of a national certificate in line with South African Qualification Authority (SAQA) standards, says the proper training of incident responders will undoubtedly contribute to the advancement and development of the national agenda in respect of road safety.
“The key driving force is to improve service delivery and ensure a safer roads environment for all,” says Modise, adding that SANRAL will bear the costs of trainers, moderators and all training material.
FleetWatch can vouch for Modise as being a pretty sharp trainer as she has participated as a lecturer in many of our FleetWatch Brake & Tyre Watch training projects which is aiming at empowering traffic officials on ‘things trucking’. Her talks on road incident management systems currently employed always get enthusiastic responses from the delegates. In other words – she’s good and we wish her luck on this venture. It is certainly needed.
