Durban mother turns tragedy into life-saving research

Just two years ago, Mabuyi Mhlanga's family suffered a tragedy - her daughter died in a road accident. The tragedy propelled her towards this research area. 

In her thesis, the programme manager of the Go!Durban project investigates road safety in the vicinity of primary schools within the eThekwini region. 

Among the top 10 schools that showed high incidents of scholar pedestrian crashes - were areas such as Sydenham, Austerville, and Umlazi. 

Mhlanga says aside from the schools being in close proximity with other learning centres, there was a lack of designated pedestrian crossings or parking areas.

Mhlanga says children, distinctly those under the age of 12, should be taught practical road safety.

"Children should be taken out of the classroom and taught about the road signs, and what the traffic signals actually mean. Taking them into the chaotic environment means that they are actually learning. Classroom training is not effective on it's own because children lack the skills of making a connection between what they're learning from a textbook to knowing what to do when they're faced with being on the road."

She says entities such as the eThekwini Municipality and the KwaZulu-Natal Transport Department, can work with schools to put 'school-zones' in place.

"A school zone is about a kilometre or two around the school where all road safety features are installed. This includes traffic calming, reducing to the speed limit and eliminating street parking," Mhlanga said.

Mhlanga graduates with a Master's degree in Civil Engineering (Transport Studies) at the University of Cape Town. 

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