Motorists more cautious over festive season

Date: 27 January 2018 By: Isabel Venter

Not only national and provincial roads saw a decline in road accidents over the past festive season, but local roads experienced the same tendency.

According to Transport Minister Joe Maswaganyi, the festive season report (for the period starting 1 December 2017 to 9 January 2018) showed that 1 527 people perished on the roads compared to the 1 714 fatalities in the same period for the previous year.

“When considering the entire holiday period from 1 December 2017 to 15 January 2018, there were 1 676 fatalities compared to 1 875 fatalities for the same period in the previous year,” said Minister Maswanganyi on Monday when releasing the report.

Minister Maswanganyi said the figure represented an 11% decline, which surpassed the 10% target. He was addressing a media briefing in Tshwane on Monday where he officially released the preliminary 2017/18 Festive Season road safety report.

The Limpopo province managed to achieve the highest reduction in the number of fatalities, followed by the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal. According to the report presented by minister Maswanganyi, Limpopo showed a decline of 43% in road deaths on the 13 most hazardous routes identified in the province. A total of 244 deaths were recorded on these routes, compared to the 429 deaths in 2016. This was a dramatic turn-around, considering that Limpopo recorded the highest increase of road fatalities during the 2016 festive season.

On local roads, the downward trend continued.

According to the report from the Makhado Fire Station (for the same period) not only fewer fatalities, but also fewer accidents occurred. For the period starting 1 December 2017 to 9 January 2018, reports show that a total of 38 accidents took place. Of these, there was one reported death and 17 people that were seriously injured. Compared to the same period in 2016, a total of 38 accidents occurred, with five reported fatalities. These figures are further down from the total of 49 accidents reported during the same period in 2015.

“It shows that our local motorists are becoming more cautious,” said the manager of the fire station, Mr Jack Ramalotso. He was heartened by the downward trend of reported accidents. “It shows us that there is progress and that our efforts are bearing fruit,” he added.

Ramalotso expressed the hope that motorists will continue to exercise caution, especially when driving on roads in Louis Trichardt. According to him, far too many accidents in town are caused by motorists not adhering to traffic lights and stop signs.

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Isabel Venter

Isabel joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2009 as a reporter. She holds a BA Degree in Communication Sciences from the University of South Africa. Her beat is mainly crime and court reporting.

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