Significant drop in festive season road deaths
WITH a total of 51 recorded fatalities during the 2022/23 Festive Season Road Safety campaign and 43 road fatalities during the 2023/24 campaign, the Northern Cape Department of Transport, Safety and Liaison said that the latest statistics have shown a significant reduction in road fatalities.
The head of communications at the department, Rennie Andrias, said fatal crashes on the Province’s roads have declined by 33% and the number of fatalities have declined by 16%.
Andrias said the majority of people who died on the roads were passengers.
“The number of passengers that died during road accidents was 20, the number of drivers who died was eight, two cyclists also died on the roads and the number of pedestrians was 13,” said Andrias.
“A significant number of our crashes happened between Thursday nights and Saturday nights, between 9pm and 4am. Men made up most of the fatalities over that period.
“The highest speed transgression recorded happened on the N1 near Colesberg in the Pixley ka Seme District where a driver was driving at a speed of 191km per hour in a 120 zone.”
Andrias said law enforcement officials were out in full force to ensure the safety of all road users.
“The department deployed 96 provincial road traffic officers on our roads, complemented by municipal traffic officials as well as members from the South African Police Service.
“The law enforcement officers stopped a total of
30 573 vehicles over that period with a total of 23 578 roadblocks conducted in the Province. Fourteen cross-border roadblocks with our sister provinces were conducted and a total of 2 346 summonses were issued. A total of 15 people were arrested for excessive speeding.
“Our road safety education unit reached more than 4 459 road users including pedestrians during that time.”
Andrias said that with the aim of boosting the number of traffic officials and further reducing road fatalities in the Province, 50 young people are currently undergoing training as traffic officers.
“The Northern Cape as a province has sent 50 young people to a traffic college in the Free State to be trained as traffic officers. This is a significant milestone for us.
“To ensure that crashes and fatalities on our roads are reduced, we must elevate the 365 Days of Road Safety campaign with a specific focus on driver behaviour and driver attitude.
“More work will also be done to root out corruption at our driving licence testing centres where the journey to becoming a responsible driver commences.
“The department expresses its eternal gratitude to all road traffic law enforcement officers, provincial and municipal traffic officials and members of the SAPS that work tirelessly to ensure that our roads are safe,” Andrias concluded.