Victim Support

Supported families of many victims with pamphlets, calls, remembering their anniversaries and attending and protesting at Court Case

The procession from the front

Summary of #Mandela Day Visits to road traffic victims in 2019 by SADD

For Mandela Day/s SADD visited 25 disadvantaged road crash victims in Greys, Edendale and Northdale Hospitals in Pietermaritzburg, to offer support, do some research and give them a small “Goody Bag” with items to make them more comfortable while in hospital. Many of the victims have been in Hospital for months & don’t get many, or any visitors, as they come from all over KZN, & the families are unable to afford to visit them

The reflective bags included T shirts, scarves, socks, woolly hats, shawls, toiletries like toothpaste & tooth brushes, face cloths, combs, tissues & soap; pens and writing materials, newspapers; and road safety materials.

 In South Africa we usually only look at statistics of those killed on our roads and forget about those who are injured, often with life changing consequences for them and their families. Many of the victims have either no or very infrequent visitors, either have been, or will be hospitalized for extended periods of time and this then made the SADD teams visit, support and the gift bag so special to them.  

The gifts for the project were kindly donated by – The majority of the victims we visited were pedestrians walking on the pavements, or side of the road where there were no pavements. SADD ask for proper pavements to be built on all roads and for them to have guard rails. This is especially important in high traffic areas and in public transport drop-off collection points. 

Some of the crashes had been caused by reckless and intoxicated drivers as well as unroadworthy vehicles whose tyres burst. Prevention is better than cure, so enforcement of our excellent road traffic laws needs to be intensified.

We also found that many passengers were not buckled up and thrown out of vehicles in crashes, so enforcement of buckling up needs to be enforced for front and back seat passengers. It was very painful to see many people who had become quadriplegic or paraplegics because they had not buckled up, or were involved in very unnecessary crashes.

Greys Hospital. Jannie Vermaak from SADD with Sanele Chamane

Fundraising & Awareness Activities

National Lotto Commission –NLC- have partially funded SADDs Taxi, Schools and University Project in the past years. 2018/2019. One of the application criteria’s was for funding Crime Reduction, yet NLC turned down SADD’s application, as they didn’t feel Drunk Driving was a crime, nor that we should train youth/volunteers. SADD appealed this decision, but we did not win the appeal.

Jan 2019: SADD Fundraiser Spinathon Hilton. Raised a great deal of cycle safe awareness and much needed funds for us to continue operating.

World Day of Remembrance 2019

Theme: Life is Not a Car Part. Lives Lost & Broken on our Roads Cannot be Replaced
Blood Drives & Remembering Victims at Fairbridge Mall – 14^th November (Brackenfell, Cape Town), N1 City Mall – 16^th November (Cape Town), Blue Route Mall – 16th November (Tokai, Cape Town) &  13th November -Victoria Country Club, Pietermaritzburg &  Life Care Hosp, Hilton;  13th November-Hilton Wellness Centre; Liberty Mall, Pietermaritzburg- 16-17th/23-24th and 29th November.

World Rembrance day poster 2019 Blood drives PMB