The road accident statistics for the festive season was released in January by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters. From the 1st of December 2015 to the 11th of January 2016 there was an increase of 14% compare to the same time during 2014 and an estimated 1,755 fatalities was reported on South African roads. It is evident that drastic action needs to be taken against repeated road offenders if there is any hope of eradicating the carnage on our roads.
Many collisions occurred as a result of jay-walking, speeding, overtaking into oncoming traffic and hit-and-run from driving under the influence of alcohol. The number of head on collisions increased during this period. Unroadworthy vehicles played a large role in the number of fatalities – burst and smooth tyres, as well as faulty brakes.
Detailed accident statistics based on type of vehicle as a % of total accidents:
- Small motor vehicles 47.9%
- Light delivery vehicles 22.7%
- Minibuses/combi’s 10.1%
- Trucks 4.8%
A closer look
During the festive season, Law Enforcement Officers intensified their interventions and heightened their visibility on the motorways with around 1.7 million vehicles being stopped and checked. This resulted in 5,710 unroadworthy vehicles removed from the roads, over 6000 motorists were arrested for drunk driving, 808 for excessive speeding, and 419 for various other traffic violations.
Fatalities
- Passengers: 38.3%
- Pedestrians: 34.9%
- Drivers: 23.9%
- Cyclists: 2.8%
- Children aged from 0-4 years, contributed 10.4% of pedestrian deaths.
- Male drivers contributed 74.4% of total fatalities, compared to 25.2%???
An estimated 51.4% of accidents, occurred between 14H00 and 23H00. This differs from reports from previous years, and may be attributed to the implementation of the 24/7 law enforcement. Weekends continue to unabatedly pose a major challenge as the highest fatal accidents off 22.2% were recorded on Saturday, followed by Friday and Sunday with 18.8% and 16.9% respectively.