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A total of 225 people died this past Easter weekend in 185 fatal accidents that were reported during that time.
“This is much more compared to the same period last year, when 135 fatal accidents and 161 deaths were recorded,” says Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga.
“People lose their lives on our roads, it’s not just statistics; family members die.”
Chikunga released the road safety statistics for the past Easter weekend on Friday.
According to Chikunga, only one major fatal accident was recorded during the Easter weekend: a chain collision on 11 April which claimed the lives of five people in KwaZulu-Natal. Foggy and rainy conditions are believed to have contributed to the collision.
“Apart from this unfortunate collision, there was no other accident involving multiple vehicles or causing more than five deaths.”
Nevertheless, there were 50 collisions and 64 more deaths than last year.
Traffic conditions and fines
A report from Sanral toll gates indicates increased traffic volumes during the period, especially on highways to and from Gauteng.
Last Thursday, Sanral recorded an average of 2,000 vehicles per hour through the toll gates. The highest volume was 2,287 vehicles between 16:00 and 17:00 at the Pumlani toll gate on the N1 to Limpopo.
The highest traffic volume for Monday was recorded between 17:00 and 18:00 when 3,244 vehicles passed through the Pumlani toll gate on their way to Gauteng.
“Law enforcers maintained visibility at all times and dealt with motorists who could not resist the temptation to break the road rules and not share roads responsibly,” says Chikunga.
As a result, 30,934 traffic fines were issued, 430 vehicles were declared unroadworthy, 1,625 invalid or forged licenses were confiscated and 1,716 drivers were arrested for speeding, drunk driving, reckless and negligent driving, or driving without a public driving licence.
The top five traffic offenses were speeding, driving unlicensed vehicles, driving without wearing seat belts, driving without a driving license and driving vehicles with worn tyres.
According to Chikunga, the most serious speeding offense was reported on the N1 near Lyttelton in Centurion where a speeder drove at 198 km/h in a 120 km/h zone.
The most serious drunk driving incident was at Harrismith in the Free State where a motorist was more than four times over the legal alcohol limit.
An increase in deaths was recorded in all provinces, in addition to Mpumalanga, the Western Cape and North West.
A total of 44.4% of all road deaths over the Easter weekend were pedestrians followed by passengers (27.7%). A quarter (25.6%) of the victims were vehicle drivers followed by cyclists (1.3%). The road user status of 1% of victims could not be determined.
Most accidents in which pedestrians died were in the Western Cape, Limpopo, Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal. The deaths were mainly caused by hit-and-run collisions, single vehicle rollovers, pedestrian collisions and head-on collisions.
Human factors, which include reckless and negligent driving, were the largest contributing factor in all deaths (96.2%), followed by road and environmental factors (4.5%) and so-called vehicle factors (1.1%).
The Automobile Association (AA) says the increase in deaths is “appalling” and once again points to a lack of proper road safety intervention and implementation by the government and the agencies responsible for road safety.
However, Chikunga maintains that the government is committed to improving road safety.
“We are intensifying anti-corruption interventions, including the use of technology such as computerized learner’s license test sheets which we will roll out nationwide.
“We are also progressing to have traffic policing declared an essential service.
The AA says the new minister must ensure that the implementation of these initiatives is done without delay. “We appeal to her [die minister]the Department of Transport and the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) – the main agency responsible for road safety in South Africa – to keep citizens informed about progress in this regard.”
“We have always believed that intensive traffic law enforcement at specific times of the year will not change driver behavior. Sustained and visible traffic law enforcement must be supported and unfortunately these elements are conspicuously absent from our country’s road safety program and must be prioritized going forward,” says the AA.
“Road safety remains a national crisis in South Africa and unless our government and the agencies responsible for road safety improve their approach, our serious road death statistics will not decrease.”
