14 per cent increase in road deaths
JOBURG – The Minister of Transport releases the festive season's road fatalities statistics.
Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters released the road fatalities statistics on 12 January in Pretoria announcing that 1 755 people had perished on South Africa’s roads during the festive season. Peters said that there was an 14 per cent increase from the 2014 figure of 1 535 fatalities.
The Eastern Cape province accounted for the majority of the fatalities with 17.1 per cent‚ followed by KwaZulu-Natal at 17 per cent‚ Gauteng 15.1 per cent‚ Limpopo 12 per cent‚ Free State 9.9 per cent‚ Western Cape 9.3 per cent‚ Mpumalanga 8.5 per cent‚ North West 7.5 per cent and Northern Cape with 3.6 per cent.
Small motor vehicles accounted for 47.9 per cent of the total number of crashes during the festive season‚ light delivery vehicles at 22.7 per cent‚ minibuses 10.1 per cent and trucks contributed 4.8 per cent.
The majority of people who died were passengers at 38.3 per cent‚ followed by pedestrians at 34.9 per cent‚ drivers accounted for 23.9 per cent of the deaths and cyclists at 2.8 per cent.
The age group of most affected for drivers as well as passengers and pedestrians were between 25 and 39, accounting for about 47‚9 per cent for drivers‚ passengers 38.5 per cent and pedestrians 34.3 per cent of the fatalities respectively.
Children aged up to 4 years contributed to 10.4 per cent of pedestrian deaths.
The gender most affected was males with a contribution of 74.4 per cent to the total fatalities. Females contributed 25.2 per cent of the fatalities.
Minister Peters pointed out that of the total number of deaths 81.4 per cent was apportioned to black people.
“Our days and nights will forever not be peaceful as corruption continues to rear its ugly head mostly in our driver learning testing centres as well as an unacceptably high number of unroadworthy vehicles found on our roads causing more fatalities and crashes. This unacceptable state of affairs will soon come to pass,” she said.
Peters commended motorists who behaved themselves throughout the festive season, adding that she was concerned with drivers who broke the speed limit and was amazed at the haste with which they received bail.
“We will spare no efforts and leave no stone unturned in decisively eradicating lawlessness on our roads,” she concluded.
