Fewer Easter road deaths – Mbalula

Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula has announced that 162 people had died on South Africa’s roads during the Easter weekend, compared to 235 last year.

The minister was briefing the media yesterday at the Grasmere Toll Plaza.

Mbalula said the country has come from an Easter period characterised by “peculiar circumstances” that impacted the travel patterns of holidaymakers and the department’s Easter road safety campaign.

He said the circumstances of this year’s Easter period also had an impact on the lower number of vehicles that were involved in road crashes and in the lower number of road deaths.

“This Easter period was marked by incessant rainfall throughout the country and floods that ravaged homes, infrastructure and left many families devastated in KwaZulu-Natal, as well as parts of Eastern Cape.

“Churches with massive followings, such as the Zion Christian Church, did not have their annual Easter pilgrimage in compliance with the Covid restrictions,” he said.

Mbalula said the number of cars on the major highways remained the same, except in KwaZulu-Natal where traffic volumes decreased by approximately 21% because of the floods.

“Our analysis shows that while the trend of fatalities per time of the day continues to show that most fatalities occur at night, a new phenomenon was noted this Easter with fatalities showing a sharp spike in the early hours of the morning between 4 and 5am. This includes the bus crash that occurred on the N1 near Leeu Gamka on Good Friday.”

“Crashes declined by 28.6%, resulting in a 31.5% decline in the number of fatalities on our roads,” said Mbalula.

“A total of 162 people perished on our roads this year compared to 235 last year, resulting from 134 fatal crashes this year compared to 189 the previous year. Most of the crashes occurred on Friday and Saturday.”

However, according to figures from the Automobile Association (AA), 270 people died in crashes in 2021, which is 35 more than what Mbalula mentioned.

When asked about the discrepancy in the number of fatalities, Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) CEO advocate Makhosini Msibi said the numbers presented by Mbalula are preliminary figures.

“At the heart of everything is the data collection and validation thereto.

“The figures that the minister gives are the figures that have not finally awaited 30 days.

“After this announcement, we are going to validate the figures on 30 days…

“[The reason for this is] there are people who are in hospital as a result of the accidents who may subsequently succumb to their deaths as a result of their accidents,” he said.