Festive season fatalities on SA’s roads: 1 376

Howard Dembovsky of Justice Project South Africa says that the number of road deaths on South African roads this past Festive Season is way too high.

“Justice Project South Africa wishes to express its sincere sympathies to all people effected by road crashes during

the monitoring period of 1 December 2013 to 7 January 2014.

“We note that the preliminary road fatalities figure during this period originally was announced as being 1 376, was later adjusted to 1 357, but in the official media release from the Department of Transport, it’s back to 1 376. Whatever it is, it’s way too high and is indicative of the serious problems South Africa faces on our roads, which can be likened to war zones.

“We share the concerns expressed by Rob Handfield-Jones with respect to the credibility of these figures since an

increase in eight days of 192 fatalities represents an average daily rate of 24 fatalities per day, compared to the daily average of 39,4 per day up to 30 December 2013.

“This is concerning particularly in light of the fact that several multi-fatality serious crashes took place after the 30 December previous report from the RTMC and the latest figures just don’t appear to be plausible.

“We wish to make it very clear, we are not in any way accusing Minister Peters of lying since she only can report on figures that are presented to her. There are fundamental flaws in the methodologies used to collate such statistical information and these need to be addressed urgently.

“We also should be very careful in announcing total reductions in road fatalities during the Festive Season, especially

in light of the consistent shortening of the monitoring period that has typified reporting over the past few years.

“Dangerous driving behaviour remains the prevalent killer on South African roads and yet the enforcement of moving

violations remains a poorly – almost non-existent – implemented practice amongst traffic authorities.

“Whilst the contingent of approximately 18 000 traffic officers countrywide cannot be deemed as nearly enough to police almost 10 million motorists, the way in which they are deployed and utilised needs urgent review.

“Deploying them to roadblocks where moving violations don’t take place and behind bushes to take photographs of speeding motorists is illogical – to put it mildly.

“On the positive side, we are heartened that the Minister of Transport has prioritised the formation of a Road Safety

Advisory Council going forward and hold high hopes for positive actions for the dramatic reduction of road carnage through positive interventions.

“There is much work ahead and only consistent and ongoing interventions, based on reliable information and best practices will achieve the goals of curbing South Africa’s unacceptably high road carnage.”