To help drivers like truck drivers, taxi drivers, and all other drivers who are frequently on the road, the Road Accident Fund (RAF) developed a wellness initiative in October; transport month back in 2022
Drivers are urged to examine their health, including their eyesight, ears, blood pressure, sugar, and diabetes.
The wellness awareness initiative visits many provinces, beginning in those with the greatest accident rates.
The program travels on a bus that has an otolaryngology (ear-clinic), an optometric clinic (eyeclinic), and a general clinic that helps drivers by checking their blood pressure and blood sugar levels. These are all factors that are thought to have the potential to affect a driver’s ability to drive.
Siphamandla Gumbi senior manager of road accident fund said:
“We are attempting to draw attention to the significance of health and how crucial it is to safety driving because studies indicate that chronic weariness is caused by health-related variables that account for 20% of accidents”.
Tuesday, they visited Bizana in the Eastern Cape, a number of taxi drivers were at Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Taxi rank to screen their health, the driver wellness initiate programme has given out to over 500 drivers in different provinces
Simphiwe Jikizwa is one of the drivers from Bizana who received glasses from the initiative he said he is grateful about the glasses because his sight gives him problems more especially when it comes to reading.
The RAF bus will be moving from Bizana to Mthatha and then go to East London
Siphamandla also highlighted answering one of the frequently asked question which is what substitute to non-payment to people who were involved or injured on the road, he said RAF does not pay drivers who were at fault during the accident when they claim from the road accident fund.
