Over 850 road deaths

SINCE the start of the year, more than 850 people have died in accidents on the province’s roads.

Stellenbosch University’s Emergency Medicine Unit in 2013 revealed that in Cape Town only 25 percent of drivers wore seatbelts. Among backseat passengers, only eight percent buckled up.

MEC for Transport and Public Works, Donald Grant yesterday said research showed that seatbelts were 99 percent effective in preventing both drivers and passengers from being ejected from a vehicle when it crashed.

Last year, 1 295 people died in crashes in the province. From January until the end of August this year, 852 road traffic fatalities were reported.

For the same period last year, 872 were reported to have died. – Staff Writer