Festive season road fatalities claim 1 612 lives
One of the most worrying statistics remains the fact that almost 90 percent of all fatalities are caused due to human error.
The festive season road fatality statistics make for grim reading and are a national disaster and sad indictment of the total disregard road users have for their own and other peoples’ lives on our country’s roads, says the Automobile Association.
Preliminary statistics of festive season road deaths released by Transport Minister Blade Nzimande recently show that 1 612 people died on South African roads between December 1 and January 8.
“In South Africa we accept these figures as routine but in 95 out of 175 other countries in the world these numbers don’t even make up their annual death toll. In fact, in the World Health Organisation’s Global Status Report on Road Safety 2018, South African ranks a lowly 159 out of 175 countries in terms of total road deaths. This is cause for major concern and certainly, in our view, is a national catastrophe,” notes a spokesman from the Automobile Association.
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One of the most worrying statistics remains the fact that almost 90 percent of all fatalities are caused by human error, a factor the minister also highlights as an area for greater scrutiny.
“We cannot allow a small minority of drivers who do not obey the rules of the road, or who believe these rules don’t apply to them, to ride roughshod over everyone else’s rights to safe travel. Proper and effective policing, supported by strong judicial intervention, will send a clear message to other reckless and selfish drivers thinking of committing the same contraventions.”
The figures show that this year’s festive season death toll on our roads is five percent more than the 1 527 recorded over the same period last year.
“This is a marginal increase but is an increase nonetheless. What these figures point to is a need for a stronger approach to ensuring we have safer cars, safer roads, safer road users, and faster post-crash intervention. The current trend of recording 1500 – 1600 deaths over such a short period should be a clarion call for urgent, meaningful and impactful change at all levels of the transport value chain.”
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