A slight drop of 0.6 in road fatality

Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters says road deaths could have been avoided if road users behaved responsibly.

Peters released the official road death figures on 2014/15 preliminary festive season road crash and fatality statistics on 9 January.

Peters explained that festive season road death statistics has had a slight drop of 0.6 per cent in the number of fatalities compared to the same period last year.

A total of 1 368 died between 1 December and 5 January.

She explained that they want to bring down the average by 50 per cent on the figures of 2010 by 2020.

“And if you see 0.6 percent, it shows that we are nowhere near getting to that point,” she said.

Gauteng is the second province that saw the highest fatalities during the season of good will, lead by Kwa-Zulu Natal.

The statistics also reveal that the fatal road accidents, which occurred on weekends occurred during 8pm and midnight (25 per cent), midnight to 4am (14 per cent) and 4am to 8am (12 percent).

The top three age groupings killed on our roads were:

• Aged between 25 and 29 (12 per cent)
• 30 and 34, (13 per cent)
• 35 and 39 (9 per cent)

Passenger age groups:

• Aged between 20 and 24 (6 per cent)
• 25 and 29 (8 per cent)
• 30 and 34 (7 per cent)

Pedestrian age groups:

• Aged between 20 and 24 (6 per cent)
• 25 and 29 (8 per cent)
• 30 and 34 (7 per cent)