Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi recently released the road crash statistics, saying that the fatalities had increased to 235 compared to 156 last year (51 per cent spike).
Some of the deadliest crashes over the Easter weekend were recorded in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.
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The minister said that fatalities had increased in all provinces, apart from the Free State, which saw a 27 per cent decline.
In Gauteng 38 fatalities were recorded, which is an increase of 58 per cent from last year.
This year’s fatalities are still significantly lower than the 333 fatalities recorded in 2015.
“This Easter period saw a remarkable increase in the number of vehicles on our roads,” said the minister.
He said human factor still remains a causal factor for most of the crashes during this Easter period.
“As we all know, this can be avoidable if we all prioritise road safety and use our roads responsibly. Our statistics indicates that people who died on the roads this Easter were passengers at 50 per cent followed by pedestrians at 24.5 per cent, drivers at 19,8 per cent and cyclists at 5.7 per cent.
“The vehicle types that made a high contribution to fatal crashes were motorcars and LDV’s with contributions of 49 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.
“Minibus type vehicles contributed 7.6 per cent and busses 1.1 per cent which indicates that most of the passengers who died were travelling in motorcars.”
He said most fatal crashes happened in the after-hours of the day.
“Very glaringly, most crashes and fatalities happened in residential areas and remote areas.
“Our preliminary report shows that many people who died on our roads were victims of hit and run incidents, jaywalking or motorists who were driving at speeds that were too high for circumstances.”
He said during this Easter period 61 340 motorists were charged with various offences including failing to wear seatbelts, use of cellphones while driving, speeding and overloading.
More than 2 800 motorist were arrested for drunken driving, inconsiderate, reckless and negligent driving, possession of false document and driving without licences and public driver’s permits. Seven motorists were detained for driving at excessive speeds above 160 km an hour on 120 km zone.
These included a motorist who was arrested on N6 in Reddersburg in the Free State driving at 227 km an hour while another was caught driving at 225 km an hour on the N1 in Pretoria.
“These are examples of the worst among the worst motorist who have no regard for road rules and the risk they pose to other motorists who obey the rules of the road.
“Our courts will show them no mercy and will give them the harshest penalties permissible. To ensure that there are severe consequences for the road rule offenders, we are at an advance stage in negotiations with the Department of Justice to finalise the introduction of minimum sentences for negligent and reckless driving.
“This is done in order to seek the reclassify drunken driving from a Schedule 3, which is less severe to a more severe Schedule 5 offence to ensure that those who negligently cause crashes on the roads do not get bail easily and spend time behind bars.
“Although law enforcement did everything to plan for a safer Easter period and authorities deployed their resources on the roads, ultimately the responsibility for safety rests on the shoulders of all us as road users.
“I therefore call on all citizens to exercise this responsibility to make South African roads safe.”
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