Sobering statistics

EMBOLDENED by a 10% drop in road fatality rates during the 2017/18 festive season, traffic authorities looked forward with confidence at the 2018 Easter weekend.

Instead, this Easter period proved to be a disappointment and disaster – it saw a 14% increase, with 510 deaths recorded from March 29 to April 9. During last year’s Easter holidays, a death toll of 449 was recorded. A total of 333 people died on the roads over the 2016 Easter, while 229 people lost their lives on our roads in Easter 2015.

This year’s increase was in spite of the almost 19 000 law enforcement officers who were deployed countrywide over the Easter long weekend.

These horrendous figures were released by Transport Minister Blade Nzimande on Tuesday. The fact that there were many arrests over the same period suggests that motorists still have a lackadaisical attitiude towards driving.

More than 6 000 motorists were caught for speeding; 3 208 were driving unlicensed vehicles; 2 344 were not wearing seatbelts; and more than 1 600 were driving vehicles with worn tyres.

The number of people caught for drunk driving is not yet clear, as they still have to appear in court and convicted based on alcohol tests done on their blood. In South Africa, the legal blood alcohol limit is 0.05g (0.02g for professional drivers) per 100ml.

More than 21 000 people were arrested on our roads last year as a result of drinking and driving. It has been shown that 50% of people who die on our roads are over the limit.

According to the minister, human factors contributed almost 90% to the crashes, compared to 74.3% last year, and male drivers accounted for 71.1% of the fatalities. A phenomenal 37.3% of those who died were pedestrians.

Road crashes cost the national economy more than R300 billion a year. On April 4, the Road Accident Fund levy went up by 30c/litre of petrol, proof that our policy seems tilted towards compensating the accident victims rather than improving road safety.

Many motorists are not obeying the rules of the road, so road safety experts agree that instead of making new, arduous, unenforceable laws, the answer lies in stringently, consistently and visibly enforcing all existing road traffic laws all year round. Thus when it comes to holiday periods, road users will already be in the habit of complying and behaving responsibly.

This might just do the trick in improving road safety and saving lives.