Festive season death toll: 38 people died on SA roads every day

Paramedics and emergency response personnel were kept busy over the festive season, as the death toll mounted and the deluge of collisions seemed never ending.

Minister of Transport, Dipuo Peters released the preliminary statistics regarding the lives lost on South African roads in a statement issued by her office on Monday.

Altogether 924 fatal collisions were recorded with 1 143 deaths as a result, between December 1 and December 30. During the same period last year, 974 fatal collisions with 1 168 deaths were recorded.

Taking these figures into account, on average 38 people died as a result of road incidents every day over the holidays.

KwaZulu-Natal recorded the most deaths, 249 from 211 crashes. Gauteng recorded 174 deaths from 156 crashes and the Eastern Cape had 161 deaths from 129 fatal incidents.

Limpopo had 138 deaths from 106 fatal crashes, Mpumalanga 110 deaths from 90, the Free State 95 deaths from 63, and the Western Cape 91 deaths from 78 fatal crashes.

Mr Peters said in Durban while there was a decrease of 50 fatal crashes and 25 deaths compared to last year, the surge in accidents and deaths after December 23 was ‘worrying’.

Justice Project South Africa (JPSA), a law enforcement and road safety watchdog organisation, disagreed with the statement made by Minister Peters.

“Contrary to what has been said, this does not represent a decrease in road fatalities, nor does it indicate that the same old festive season interventions that have been tried over and over again are having the desired effect,” a spokesperson from the organisation said.

JPSA maintained head-on collisions remained a leading cause of deaths on the road.

In conjunction with the United Nation’s Decade of Road Safety campaign, the Department of Transport wants to decrease road deaths by 50 per cent by 2020.