How to avoid roadblocks in South Africa

Posted on December 31st, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,984 views

South African government officials and traffic authorities are not happy with a new service started by a Belgian company, Etri (First to Know), to help road users evade traffic road blocks and stay out of jail.

The Get Road Smart service is a cell phone subscription service which sends SMSes to your mobile alerting you to the presence of speed traps and mobile road blocks set up to catch drunk drivers (and now also drug users).

The service was introduced into KZN recently and has proven popular. It has now been extended to cover Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The service also operates in Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Controversy surrounds the service. Bheki Cele, Transport MEC, feels that it defeats the ends of justice. Collen Msibi , National Transport Department spokesperson,  said the department did not support it either.

Managing Director of Etri, Vincent Parisis, had this to say:

“Officials and politicians may not like the service, but it is legal. We have been in this business for a long time and it is 100 percent legal. We are not promoting drinking and driving or speeding.

In other countries we even go so far as putting in place the bring-home taxi service for people who drink too much.

Parisis said the service contributed to preventing people from drinking and driving and speeding.

The natural response when people receive information about speed and alcohol checks is they will change their behaviour.

They will stop drinking alcohol or slow down. This is exactly what happens when people receive our SMS.”

What do you think? Is this service valuable or will it hamper traffic authorities ability to crack down on bad road users?

Sources:
Roadblock tip-off service to spread
Road block tip-off SMS angers officials

Tags: ETRI, Roadblocks, Vincent Parisis
Filed under Roadblocks |

9 Responses to “How to avoid roadblocks in South Africa”

1. Lenny Says:
   January 1st, 2009 at 18:12

   What a great service for the drunk driver on the go!

2. Richard Catto Says:
   January 1st, 2009 at 20:26

   Haha. Of course anyone driving their vehicle erratically is going to attract the attention of patrols.

3. Eric Says:
   January 5th, 2009 at 12:01

   Nothing wrong with warning people not to break the law.

4. Richard Catto Says:
   January 5th, 2009 at 13:08

   @Eric: One of the concerns raised by the authorities is that this service will allow wanted criminals to evade roadblocks and thus escape arrest. Roadblocks are equipped with a handheld machine (Morpho Touch) used to scan finger prints. If an outstanding warrant exists for the person, they are arrested on the spot.

5. Eben Says:
   January 5th, 2009 at 17:05

   This is great!!! we had the same thing in mind, we have 5 vans on the road and they need to do lots of dropps per day, if they knew where they were gonna get held up – well jobs will be done much faster. this is a great service !!!! i have some more ideas regards to this service!!!!! call me WEBMASTER!!! we can make this work EVEN better in RSA

6. Richard Catto Says:
   January 5th, 2009 at 18:25

   @Eben: I suggest you contact Etri directly via their web site which is linked in the article above.

7. Sybergypsy Says:
   January 6th, 2009 at 19:07

   Damned if you do and damned if you don’t: this seems to apply to the topic, it won’t be to the goverment’s advantage if “wanted criminals” can evade roadblocks, and yet legal business(es) seem to welcome this thing as it will reduce delays en route… bit ambiguous if you ask me?

   Then again, who asked me….?

8. Richard Catto Says:
   January 6th, 2009 at 19:51

   @Sybergypsy: It will be interesting to see if this service is a hit in Cape Town. A lot of businesses don’t succeed here because Capetonians are a hard sell. The monthly subscription of R50 will probably put a lot of people off.

9. Barrie Lovell Says:
   August 12th, 2009 at 07:58

   I CURRENTLY BELONG TO
   GET ROADSMART.DOES
   THAT INCLUDE BOOZE TRAPS?
   I HAVE NEVER SEEN A WARNING EVEN WHEN THE SHARKS FANS WERE TARGETED.

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