South Africans Against Drunk Driving dedicated 67 minutes, in memory of Nelson Mandela, by showing support to road crash victims in local hospitals.
Pietermaritzburg, 18th July 2016 Local non-profit, South Africans Against Drunk Driving have shown their continued support to road crash victims by visiting Grey’s Hospital and Edendale Hospital.
This effort is inspired by the international campaign to reserve 67 minutes on Nelson Mandela’s birthday to alleviate some of the social injustices within your community.
SADD was fortunate to find sponsorship from local businesses like SuperSpar Hilton Quarry, Kubeka General Store and Hilton Pharmacy, and they donated a wide range of cosmetics and trinkets in an effort to uplift the patients.
A total of thirteen long term patients were visited by SADD, and majority of the patients were pedestrians, internationally recognised as vulnerable road users, who often suffer the most from negligent driving.
“This has been an eye opening experience, and we encourage the public to stay safe on the roads. Most of the patients have suffered a great deal of trauma, from both their injuries and the loss of loved ones. Unfortunately, majority of the cases recounted by the patients were preventable, reiterating the need for more road safety education and enforcement across South Africa. We all need to adopt a proactive attitude to decrease the amount of crashes on our roads by wearing our seat belts, not drinking and driving and not texting and driving or walking”
SADD hopes that they will receive more support from their community and South Africa as a whole to continue their work of advocating for the victims who seldom have a voice.