Easter road deaths soar
14%: 510 FATALITIES RECORDED COMPARED WITH 449 WHO PERISHED IN 2017
Incidents were among poor and working class, with human error major factor – minister.
Transport Minister Blade Nzimande has released a horrifying preliminary report, showing a significant rise of 14% in deaths on South Africa’s roads over the Easter period.
Releasing his report into fatal crashes, Nzimande said these incidents were among the poor and working class, disproportionately more than other groups, with human error playing a major factor.
“This Easter there was a noticeable shift towards the rural poor who use the roads as pedestrians,” said the minister.
“Key among them is that there were four major crashes that took place in rural areas. Two of them happened in KwaZulu-Natal – Greytown and Taylor’s Halt – and the other two in Limpopo – Diperere village and near Mabula Lodge in the Waterfall district.
“Together, these four crashes claimed 345 lives and left 26 injured. These crashes happen where they were least expected and on roads that do not normally experience a high number of fatal crashes.”
He said despite efforts to reduce accidents, there was still an unfortunate increase to 510 fatalities recorded from March 29 to April 9, compared with 449 who died in the same period last year.
“It is very concerning that some unwarranted behaviours continued unabated and this has been ably demonstrated by the successful arrests of 6 435 drivers who were caught speeding; 3 208 drivers driving unlicensed vehicles; 300 drivers without driver’s licenses; 2 344 drivers without fastening seat belts; and 1 698 drivers driving vehicles with worn tires.”
Light motor vehicles accounted for 44.6% of the crashes, almost the same as last year, said Nzimande. “Bakkies or light delivery vehicles accounted for the second-highest number of vehicle collisions at 21.2%, minibuses were third recording a 1% decrease to 9% and buses were stable at 1.7%.”
Most accidents occurred on Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 5pm and 8pm, despite critical routes with high accident rates being identified and traffic law enforcement intensified.
The majority of crashes happened on unnamed village roads in Limpopo, as well as on the N2, N4 and the R518.
“The most affected rural dis- trict municipalities in Limpopo are Vhembe, Waterberg, Mopani and Greater Sekhukhune,” said the minister.
“Other affected municipalities were Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, City of Tshwane, Capricorn, Ehlanzeni, City of Joburg, City of Cape Town, Joe Gqabi, Lejweleputswa, ZF Mgcawu and Nkangala.”
A Nelson Mandela Bay Democratic Alliance councillor is still filled with disbelief by the actions of his ANC counterpart and political heavyweight Andile Lungisa who, in October 2016, violently smashed a glass jug over the head of committee transport member Rano Kayser during a chaotic council meeting.
With video footage of the incident making waves on social media at the time, councillor Renaldo Gouws, who recorded it, said his decision to do so was to provide evidence of the pandemonium because he felt his own life was in danger.
The Port Elizabeth Regional Court yesterday convicted Lungisa of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
The violent fracas saw blood being shed while other councillors received trauma counselling.
In handing down judgment, Magistrate Morne Cannon said: “I should make it clear that this is not a political matter but a clearcut criminal case.”
Cannon said DA councillors and witnesses Renaldo Gouws, Johnnie Arends and speaker Jonathan Lawack confirmed Kayser’s evidence that he never assaulted Lungisa first.
He was impressed with the evidence led by the councillors, adding that it corroborated the footage.
It was clear Kayser did not hit nor intended to hit Lungisa, said Cannon. Gouws yesterday told The Citizen he was in the meeting when the incident took place.
“I could see the meeting was deteriorating into chaos so I decided to record it on my cellphone as I didn’t feel safe and wanted evidence in the event that something happened to me,” said Gouws.
“I respect the court’s decision in this regard and I believe that the guilty verdict is fair. The video evidence is overwhelming and anyone that has viewed it can see that Andile Lungisa was the one that caused havoc in the council chambers.”
Gouws said he believed violent outbursts as seen in recent times “are due to the ANC failing to accept the fact that they are now in opposition in Nelson Mandela Bay”.
“They are trying their utmost to make the city ungovernable at all costs. And, in their opinion, an effective way of doing this is by disrupting council meetings so that no decisions can be taken. The problem with this tactic is that the residents are the ones that suffer.” –