High road death toll in less traffic a ‘grave concern’

With less traffic compared to the same period last year due to Covid-19 restrictions, the 690 road fatalities so far for the 2020 festive season is a grave cause for concern, the Justice Project SA (JPSA) has said.

Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula this week said the deaths had been recorded between 1 and 20 December, representing a decline of 5.7% from 732 in the same period last year, which he admitted was no reason to celebrate.

The decline in six provinces, including Gauteng and the Western Cape, was a “dipstick” in the progress made towards achieving 20% reduction in road fatalities this year.

Founder and chair of JPSA Howard Dembovsky said the statistics meant, even with the lower volume of traffic, too many people were still dying on the roads.

“It shows that we are slaughtering a lot of people. The 5.7% so-called reduction against the backdrop of 27% less traffic is a worse situation, rather than making progress,” he said.

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With around 14 000 road deaths every year, SA is amongst the countries with the highest traffic death rate in the world.

Thania Dhoogra, N3 Toll Concession operations manager, said although it was unclear how the holiday season would unfold, they had carefully planned for any eventuality.

She said analysis of crash statistics and traffic data on the N3 toll route revealed that human error remained the top contributing factor in crashes, 69% in the case of light motor vehicles and 83% in heavy motor vehicles.

These included veering off the road, head-tail collisions, side swipes and multiple pileups, which Dhoogra said pointed to negligent driving, including speeding, a general lack of concentration, distractedness, aggressive driving behaviour and ignoring road signs.

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Mechanical failure, including brake failure and tyre bursts, contributed to 11% of light motor vehicle crashes and 13% of heavy motor vehicle incidents.

According to the transport department, the roads were “fairly” busy during the first peak on 18 and 19 December, with an average of 2 439 vehicles per hour on the N1 from Gauteng to Limpopo.

The N3 from Johannesburg to Durban recorded an average of 1 547 vehicles per hour, marginally lower than a year ago. The N3 Toll Concession said volumes can increase to 2 000 to 3 500 vehicles per hour on peak days.

Chaotic scenes have played out at the Beitbridge border post, where a Zimbabwean allegedly died after complaining of fatigue and dizziness when the bus he was travelling in waited for days in the queue.

The congestion has left scores of people stranded there for up to four days.

Home affairs spokesman David Hlabane could not be contacted for comment.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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