Easter death toll increases nationally

MORE than 280 people lost their lives on the country’s roads over the Easter weekend, a shocking statistic which eclipses last year’s death toll by almost 50 per cent. This alarming rise in fatalities was announced by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters last Tuesday. The preliminary death toll on SA’s roads was 287. This surpasses the figure of 193 last year, and is also more than the figure of 241 recorded over the Easter weekend of 2013.

The total number of fatal accidents over the holiday was 208, with the highest number in all the provinces – 38 – occurring in KwaZulu-Natal. Though the Easter weekend proved a quiet one for emergency services in Durban North and uMhlanga, one person tragically lost her life after the car she was travelling on rolled several times and collided into a pole on Umgeni Road.

While a number of factors were attributed to the massive death toll, drunk driving was key among the statistics. Lt Raymond Deokaran, spokesman for the Durban North SAPS, said nine people were arrested over three days for drunken driving on the roads in the North.

“To have drivers taking a chance on the roads like this is extremely worrying. Unfortunately, they won’t be the last. We want to remind everyone that getting behind the wheel while drunk is a terrible idea. With more long weekends coming up, we are warning drivers we will be out in full force to fine and arrest those breaking the rules of the road,” he said.

Deokaran added there would be no leeway for errant drivers.

In the worst case of drunken driving over the weekend, seven people were injured when the car they were travelling in plunged down a six-metre hill into a property on Avoca Hills Drive. What’s more, the 4×4 crash-landed on top of another car parked at the property. Four of the seven passengers, including the driver, were arrested for allegedly being drunk.

Minister Peters expressed shock at the Easter death toll and the number of accidents, and said the ‘unwarranted misery’ of the long weekend was brought about by irresponsible and lackadaisical behaviour.

“These are heads of families – breadwinners – and people whose potential could have been used to build our economy and move South Africa forward. Surely by any standard and imagination we just cannot accept this behaviour on our roads. Our roads cannot be death traps. It is the intransigent human conduct that is responsible for mowing our people to death.

“We can no longer afford to bring this untold strain to our economy, health and social services. Indeed, we cannot be at peace with ourselves when we fail to take responsibility and unanimously declare that enough is enough,” Peters said.