Festive season statistics: Less road fatalities recorded

The 2022/2023 festive season claimed 234 less lives on South African roads compared to the previous year but pedestrian fatalities rose with 10% from 31% to 41%, claiming more than 50% of all road fatalities in certain provinces. Gauteng was the only province that recorded an increase in deaths on roads.

Minister of Transport Fikile Mbalula held a media briefing at the N1 Grasmere Toll Plaza yesterday.  He said the decrease in road fatalities, spanning from December 1, 2022 to January 11, translates to an improvement of 13.9%.

Fatal crashes were 6.5% less with 1 211 recorded this year compared to 1 295 the previous year. Human errors remained the main culprit, causing 87% of all fatal crashes, says Mbalula. Road and environmental factors caused 8% of crashes and vehicle faults 5%.

“In Gauteng and Western Cape, pedestrian fatalities constitute 54% of all fatalities, implying that for every 100 people that died from a road crash, 54 were pedestrians.

“For this festive season, passenger fatalities recorded a 7% decline, with 31% recorded in the current period, compared to 38% in the previous festive season.

“Driver fatalities declined from 28% in the previous period to 27% in this festive season. Cyclist fatalities also declined from 3% in the previous period to 2% in the current festive season,” Mbalula said.

Most crashes occurred between 17:00 and 22:00 and happened over weekends.

Light motor vehicles contributed 39% to fatal crashes, followed by light delivery vehicles at 16%. Minibuses contributed 7% and trucks accounted for 4%.

How provinces performed:

• Western Cape fatalities dropped from 207 to 131, resulting in a 36.7% reduction.
• Mpumalanga fatalities dropped from 189 to 144, resulting in a 23.8% reduction.
• Northern Cape fatalities dropped from 65 to 51 resulting in a 21.5% reduction.
• North West fatalities dropped from 119 to 94, resulting in a 21% reduction.
• Limpopo fatalities dropped from 226 to 179, resulting in a 20.8% reduction.
• KwaZulu-Natal fatalities dropped from 275 to 240, resulting in a 12.7% reduction.
• Eastern Cape fatalities dropped from 210 to 205 resulting in a 2.4% reduction.
• Free State fatalities dropped from 119 to 117, resulting in a 1.7% reduction.
• Gauteng fatalities increased from 275 to 290, resulting in a 5.5% increase.

Law enforcement interventions

Mbalula said law enforcement interventions were critical in reducing the carnage on the roads during the festive season.

“Over 370 joint operations were executed, … [focussing] on pedestrian enforcement, vehicle road worthiness, public passenger transport, drunken driving, execution of warrants of arrest and speed law enforcement.

“[A total of] 474 roadblocks were effected with over 1.3 million vehicles stopped and checked. Over 255 000 notices were issued,” the minister said.

During December 2022, over 1 200 vehicles and trucks were stopped and checked, with this number increasing to 1 204 vehicles stopped since the beginning of January.

“We have to decisively deal with the rampart corruption prevalent in our Driving Licence Testing Centres, as a significant number of vehicles on our roads are unlicensed, with others driving with fraudulent licence discs.

“Unlicensed vehicle offences stood at 25 244. This corruption translated to a revenue loss for the Gauteng government of R1.2b in the last financial year. The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), the Hawks and the Gauteng province must urgently attend to this matter and bring the perpetrators to book,” Mbalula said.

He said enforcement continues to be a critical part of road safety, including road user education and road infrastructure engineering.

“Speeding infringements remain high on the offence list at 32 110. The majority of arrests over the 2022 festive season have been for warrants executed at 1 600, operating licences at 1 094 and 947 drunken driving cases were opened,” Mbalula said.

He said government has committed to deploying technology as an additional intervention to strengthen law enforcement and make the roads safer.

“Efforts to have visible policing at hazardous locations will continue to be a priority, especially at accident-prone times. Eradicating corruption through the RTMC’s national anti-corruption unit remains our key priority. I must commend our traffic officers, police officers and all members of the emergency and rescue services who sacrificed their time away from their loved ones to ensure that you and I reach our destinations safely,” the minister said. – SAnews.gov.za