AA: ‘Horrendous’ Easter road deaths require urgent intervention

The Automobile Association (AA) has taken aim at the Department of Transport after the latter’s confirmation that 225 motorists died on the country’s road over the Easter long weekend.

In a statement, the association said the announcement by Transport Minister, Sindisiwe Chikunga, earlier today, which represents a 40% increase over the 185 lives lost over the same period in 2022, is a further sign that dramatic intervention is required in order to ensure proper safety on the country’s highways and byways are indeed.

Grim picture

According to Chikunga, speeding topped the list of most common offence, with the worst being a driver nabbed doing 198km/h in a 120 km/h zone near Centurion.

In total, she added that 30 934 fines were issued, 1 625 vehicles impounded, 430 vehicles taken off the road entirely and 1 716 individuals arrested for excessive speeding, drunken driving and reckless driving.

Describing the figures as “horrendous” in spite of promised measures to curb fatalities, AA spokesperson Layton Beard said a lack of proper road safety involvement is once again evident regardless of what government says it is doing to prevent deaths from going up.

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AA not impressed

“The minister indicated that government would be rolling out a 365 day road safety campaign, which includes classifying traffic policing as a seven-day, 24-hour job. This will ensure more traffic law enforcement visibility on our roads and is long overdue,” Beard said.

He, however, added that ”the minister must ensure the implementation of these initiatives is done without delay, and we call on her, the Department of Transport, and the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) to keep citizens informed on the progress of implementation”.

Beard continued by saying that the AA is still of the opinion “that intensive traffic law enforcement at specific times of the year will not change driver behaviour” and that “awareness campaigns targeting motorists, cyclists and pedestrians” need to be increased dramatically.

“These elements are conspicuously absent from our country’s road safety programme and must be prioritised going forward,” he said.

“Road safety remains a national crisis in South Africa and unless our government and the agencies responsible for road safety improve their approach, our dire road fatality statistics will not decrease.”

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