2017/2018 festive season sees a drop in road fatalities

This past festive season recorded a reduction in road fatalities.

The Automobile Association (AA) said that the reduction is promising and is an indication of the achievement of certain road safety interventions across the country. However, the AA said it was concerned with the escalation in the number of youth who died, and the unrelenting high number of pedestrians who were killed.

On Monday, 22 January, the official festive season road fatality statistics were released by the minister of transport, Joe Maswanganyi.

It is reported that from 1 December to 15 January, 1 676 people died on South Africa’s roads. This signals an 11 per cent decrease in road fatalities over the same period in the past year when 1 875 people died.

The festive season reporting period last year was from 1 December 2016 to 9 January 2017. In this period, 1 714 people died. In the comparable period this year, 1 527 people lost their lives.

“These numbers are promising and, hopefully, signal the start of a new trend where our country’s road fatality statistics show decreases instead of increases. Much, much more needs to be done to ensure our road deaths are reduced even further, and this year’s improved figures indicate some progress [in] achieving that,” said the AA.

However, despite these better statistics, the AA said that is was concerned with the escalation in the number of youth who died, and the unrelenting high number of pedestrians who were killed.

“We agree with the minister that more needs to be done to educate the youth about pedestrian safety. We will continue our Walk Safe campaign in primary schools, as well as our Visibility Campaign to promote better pedestrian visibility as part of our contribution to dealing more effectively with these problems,” the AA noted.

Apart from the national figure, a significant statistic is the 43 per cent drop in fatalities on 13 of the country’s most dangerous routes.  The AA believes that this is partly due to the rise in visible policing on these routes, and said it is a policy which must be applied in other areas.

“It is therefore critical that the introduction of a 24/7 shift system for traffic law enforcers is done sooner rather than later. With more traffic officials on our roads, at all times of the day or night, we believe these reduced numbers will be sustained, and even improved on next year,” said the association.

In addition to the reduced number of fatalities, the AA also noted the reduction in the number of people stopped for drunk driving, not wearing seatbelts, or for reckless and negligent driving.

“This again points to a change of attitude in behaviour among motorists which we view as the most important element of road safety. Bad driving behaviour needs to become more socially unacceptable, and the evidence presented by the minister indicates this is also beginning to happen,” said the AA.

The Automobile Association said they welcome these figures and are hopeful that they will see similar reduced statistics reflected over the upcoming Easter period.

“More importantly, though, we hope to see continued reductions year on year, and continued improved driving behaviour among all road users,” the AA concluded.

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— Arrive Alive (@_ArriveAlive) January 25, 2018