South African road safety worst in world – survey

It’s official – South Africa is the world’s most dangerous country in which to drive.

Just 31% of all front seat passengers in South Africa wear seatbelts, and drink-driving fatalities are the highest in the world, at 57.5%.

This was revealed in a Zutobi survey, which analyses a variety of factors leading to road traffic accidents and fatalities in 53 countries, and produces the annual World’s Safest Roads report.

While South Africa’s posted speed limit of 120km/h is just 10km higher than that of Norway – the safest country in the world to drive – SA road fatalities are 22.2 per 100 000, while Norway’s are just 1.48/100 000.

Compared with SA’s dismal seatbelt-wearing rate (31%), Norway’s is an impressive 97.8%.

Accompanying South Africa at the rear-end of the safest roads report are Thailand in 52nd place, the USA (51), Argentina (50), India (49) and Malaysia (48).

Thailand has the highest road traffic death rate; France has the highest seatbelt-wearing rate, at 99.4%; South Africa has the highest drink-driving road fatalities (57.5%), and Bolivia boasts the lowest seatbelt-wearing rate, at just 3.5% and is ranked 44th on the safe roads survey.

View the full report here.

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