Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy and her deputy, Mkhuleko Hlengwa. Picture: X/@Dotransport
More than 10 000 people have lost their lives on South Africa’s roads just in 2024 alone.
This was revealed by Minister of Transport Barbara Creecy and her deputy, Mkhuleko Hlengwa on Sunday.
The Department of Transport launched its annual festive season road safety campaign under the theme “Every Day Without a Road Death – South Africa 2024”, in an effort to curb the rising number of accidents and fatalities.
Creecy said that so far, 10,154 people have died on the country’s roads in 2024.
“The high number of road crashes and the related consequences has a significant impact on South African society. The impact is measured in terms of human lives lost, pain, grief and suffering, and comes at a significant cost to the economy.”
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She said the department thy are trying a “different approach” this festive season to keep people safe on the roads.
“I haven’t actually set a target for the festive season itself as yet, because we are trying something new this year. What we have done is we have taken all the research that the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) has undertaken over many years on places where we see repeat major accidents.
“We are planning to deploy our own national traffic police to those hot spots. We’re also asking all of our provinces and all of our municipalities to do a similar breakdown of where the most accidents and most fatalities occur, and to place officers on the beat to increase patrolling,” Creecy said.
Creecy added that the department has a campaign to try and change driver behaviour.
“We understand that enforcement is part of the story, but changing driver behaviour and changing pedestrian behaviour is a very important aspect, if we are going to achieve our objectives in the longer term.”
Creecy said road fatalities do not only impact the families of the affected victims, but there is also a massive cost to the economy.
“Last year road crashes cost us R205 billion. This amounts to 2.7% of our Gross Domestic Product.”
Creecy said the department has set a goal to reduce road traffic deaths by 50% by 2030.
With traffic volumes expected to spike ahead of the Christmas and New Year’s long weekends, the Creecy called on all road users, drivers and pedestrians to take the necessary action to keep safe and ensure a reduction in the number of crashes on the roads.
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