Road fatalities down by 11%

South Africa’s festive season road death toll decreased by a significant 11% to 1 527, compared to 1 714 fatalities recorded in the same period of the previous year, Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi said yesterday.

“Our preliminary festive season fatalities for the period starting December 1, 2017, to January 9, 2018, show that there were 1 527 people who died on the roads in that period compared to 1 714 fatalities in the same period the previous year,” Maswanganyi said in Pretoria.

“This represents an 11% decline, which surpassed the 10% target. When considering the entire holiday period from December 1, 2017, to January 15, 2018, there were 1 676 fatalities compared to 1 875 fatalities for the same period in the previous year.”

Maswanganyi said as a result of concerted efforts from law enforcement agencies, with cooperation from the judiciary, a festive season plan was well executed – which resulted in noticeable declines in the number of fatalities in seven provinces – with the exception of the Western Cape and the North West, which recorded 7%, and 11% increases, respectively.

“[The] Limpopo [province] was a star performer as it managed to achieve the highest reduction in the number of fatalities, followed by the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal. The highest number of fatalities was among pedestrians, which increased from 34% to 37%, and fatalities among drivers also increased from 23% to 27%.

“However, there was a decline in passenger fatalities from 41% to 35%, which indicates that it is possible to save more lives if more people use safety belts,” said Maswanganyi.

He said the number of traffic violation notices showed a decrease [from] 453 263 in the previous period to 304 603 in the period under review.

“There was a decline in the number of people who were fined for failing to wear safety belts, and the number of discontinued vehicles. There was a decline in the number of motorists arrested for drunken driving from 5 943 in the 2016-17 period to 3 301 in the 2017-18.”

Maswanganyi, however, said speeding “continued to be a headache with 922 drivers arrested for speed compared to 785 in the 2016-17 period. Five motorists were arrested in Limpopo, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape for driving at speeds exceeding 220km/h.” – ANA