Sanral accredited to deliver road incident management qualification

Issued by SANRAL
Johannesburg, Jul 5, 2016

The spiralling accident rate on South African roads demands adequately skilled and trained personnel to take charge of incidents and save lives.

In a groundbreaking move that will ensure increasing levels of efficiency and effectiveness in the management of road incidents, the South African National Roads Agency SOC Limited (Sanral) has been tasked with overseeing the skills training and development of emergency services officers in Road Incident Management Systems (RIMS).

South Africa has a road death toll of 23.5 per 100 000 of the population, way above the global average. The high accident rate contributes to delays, bottlenecks and congestion in traffic flow. This is compounded by the time it takes emergency and enforcement services personnel to detect, activate response and reach the scene of accidents.

Personnel who are suitably qualified in RIMS will be able to implement prudent and innovative measures to deal with accidents swiftly and as efficiently as possible to maintain open roads and free traffic flow.

Sanral has been accredited by the Transport Sector Education and Training Authority (TETA) to deliver the RIMS qualification.

Nomsa Modise, Project Manager for Social Economic Development and RIMS in the Eastern Region will be in charge of RIMS skills training under the auspices of Sanral.

She said the RIMS qualification will be offered up to university level and will contribute to increasing levels of efficiency and effectiveness while developing a common integrated and co-ordinated approach to transport or other related incident management.

"The focus of Sanral is to promote skills development through skills programmes and other training interventions by means of recognised and accredited learning programmes.

"The RIMS skills training which is mainly aimed at traffic officials, paramedics, police, military, fire departments and other emergency response services will help to ensure the rapid detection of incidents, quick verification of the extent and type of incident, followed by the deployment of the appropriate resources."

Modise who has spearheaded the development of the incident management qualification in the form of a national certificate in line with South African Qualification Authority (SAQA) standards said the proper training of incident responders will undoubtedly contribute to the advancement and development of the national agenda in respect of road safety.

"Sanral is committed to the promotion of outcomes-based training with the impetus on lifelong learning by means of an integrated approach of education and training that links skills to qualifications.

"The key driving force is to achieve the set outcomes to capacitate Industries through training initiatives to improve service delivery and ensure a safer roads environment for all," Modise said.

Sanral will bear the costs of trainers, moderators and all training material.