Cape Town – Transport Minister Dipuo Peters says 1 368 people lost their lives on the country’s roads over the festive season.
Announcing the 2014/15 preliminary festive season road crash and fatality statistics, the Minister said the number of lives lost was a cause for concern. The 1 368 fatalities resulted from 1 118 crashes.
Minister Peters briefed journalists on road carnage for the period starting 1 December 2014 to 5 January 2015 – the busiest period on the country’s roads as people drive across provinces to various holiday destinations.
The Minister said compared to the same period in 2013/14, 1 147 fatal crashes were registered with 1 376 fatalities.
“This indicates a slight reduction of 2.5% for fatal crashes and 0.6% for fatalities.
“Though we half-heartedly acknowledged the decline, we have no cause to celebrate as our people continue to be killed on our roads due to irresponsible and murderous acts of fellow road users.
“These senseless killings could have been avoided if we all behaved as responsible law-abiding citizens,” she said.
She said the statistics that she presented indicated that there is an urgent need to take appropriate action.
Road crashes rob citizens of their loved ones and impacts negatively on the economy by putting a budgetary burden on the fiscus.
She urged road users to exercise caution and refrain from contravening traffic laws - including drunken driving, texting while driving – and said road users ought to respect the lives of other road users.
“I find it prudent and befitting on behalf of the government of South Africa and in particular the transport sector to convey our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families of those that died on our roads and those families that are still in mourning due to the senseless killings of their loved ones.
“Those that are recuperating in hospitals, we wish them a speedy recovery,” she said.
For months, Minister Peters has said that while one death on the roads is one death too many, government aimed to halve the 2010 road fatalities by 2020.
While the Minister lauded law-enforcement agencies and government departments that have worked together during the festive season to implement road safety campaigns, she said more needed to be done to bring the carnage down.
This would include, among others, the transfer of eNaTIS from the National Department of Transport to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) and some improved coordination of driver licence testing centres and computerised learner licence testing.
Zooming in on the figures
On the trends that contributed to road carnage, 39% of them were passengers, 36% pedestrians, drivers 24% and cyclists one percent.
On gender, males contributed 75% to the road fatalities and road crashes, while 22% were female.
The Minister also said based on the age of the driver age group, those who are between the ages of 30 to 34 contributed 13% to the total fatalities. Those that are between 25 and 29 years old made up 12% of all fatalities, while nine percent were those between the ages of 35 and 39.
Below is a summary of other road deaths categories:
Passengers age group
- 20 to 24 (6%)
- 25 to 29 (8%)
- 30 to 34 (7%)
Total 21%
Pedestrians age group
- 20 to 24 (6%)
- 25 to 29 (8%)
- 30 to 34 (7%)
Total 21% - SAnews.gov.za
