Mpumalanga reduces fatalities by 28 percent

Dedication and hard work by traffic officers should be commended as it has contributed towards Mpumalanga province’s Easter holidays road fatalities by 28%.

This level of commitment by law enforcers and other stakeholders involved in road safety should be commended because it will go a long way to curb road crashes and lawlessness on the road.

By this they have contributed in saving many lives on the road. We are also extending our gratitude to the road users who obeyed the rules of the roads during Easter holidays because the numbers could have been much higher had they not used the road considerately during the holidays.

This is according to Mpumalanga Community Safety, Security and Liaison MEC, Pat Ngomane after the presentation of this year’s preliminary Easter road safety statistics by the National Transport Minister, Dr Blade Nzimande in Cape Town. According to the statistics, Mpumalanga is leading in terms of reducing the number of fatalities. This year’s Easter period commenced from March 29 to April 9 and it covers the April school holidays as well.

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This year, the province recorded 49 fatalities as compared to 68 fatalities that were recorded in 2017. MEC Ngomane also notes that the province is leading in the reduction of road fatalities as compared to the other eight provinces. The statistics depict that in 2017, 33 road fatal crashes were recorded while in 2018 there were 44 fatal crashes which represents an increase of 33%.

MEC Ngomane says although the province managed to reduce the number of fatalities, one death is one death too many and this remains a concern for the province.

“One death is one too many, therefore we cannot relax when we see a reduction. This means we have to tighten our belts even more because we can see that we are heading towards a direction where many drivers will become more responsible,” says Ngomane.

The MEC went on to applaud traffic officers for the successes made with regards to law enforcement operations. The province saw a high volume of traffic during the Easter weekend holidays and 14017 vehicles were stopped in different parts of the province in different operations.

During the operations, traffic officers issued 4854 fines to motorists for different violations which include excessive speeding, driving without valid documentation, driving vehicles with defects and overtaking dangerously. There were 152 motorists that were arrested during this period, 129 of them were arrested for drunk driving, 22 drivers were also caught for excessive speeding.