https://www.engineeringnews.co.za

Transport Minister reports 5% increase in festive season road deaths

10th January 2017

By: African News Agency

  

Font size: - +

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters on Tuesday blamed unqualified and reckless drivers for the significant increase in road crashes and fatalities that occurred during the past festive season, saying that drivers needed to change their behaviour on the roads.

According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), road crashes and fatalities increased by 5% for the 2016/17 festive season to 1 714 compared to the 2015/16 period.

Peters said there was an influx of incompetent drivers on South African roads.

Light-motor vehicles contributed 49% to the total number of crashes, followed by light delivery vehicles at a contribution of 18%, and minibus vehicles which contributed 10%.

“While we accept that the back-to-back extended long weekends that characterised the 2016/17 festive period posed a big challenge to road safety and that the rainy weather provided a complicating factor, we must equally accept that in most instances the competence of our drivers leaves much to be desired,” Peters said.

“The fact that an overwhelming majority of fatal crashes were as a result of a single-motor vehicle overturning and head-on collisions points to the incompetence of our drivers to handle their motor vehicles.”

Peters said traffic law enforcement officers had conducted more than 432 roadblocks throughout the country during the festive season and issued 453 263 fines for various traffic offences.

“Of particular interest is that 28 238 of these fines were for drivers who failed to wear seat-belts while 4 046 were for using cellphones while driving,” Peters said.

Peters then took aim at alleged corruption that occurred at driver’s licence testing centres, saying that her department would be intensifying investigations on how driver’s licenses and certificates of road-worthiness were issues.

“This buttresses the point and aspersions rampant corruption within our Drivers Licencing and Testing Centres compounded by the voluntary collusion and participation by our road users in their unflinching desire to acquire driver’s licences.

“I have instructed the Road Traffic Management Corporation to undertake an an audit of how driving licences as well as roadworthy certificates are processed and issued in our testing stations, so that we can have an appreciation of how it is possible that so many incompetent drivers and unroadworthy vehicles could be on our roads.”

According to RTMC, the Eastern Cape recorded the biggest decline in fatalities with a 20% reduction to 211 deaths compared to 265 deaths for the same period in 2015.

Limpopo recorded the highest increase of road fatalities of 31%, moving from 186 deaths in 2015 to 244 in the 2016 festive period.

Edited by African News Agency

Comments

Showroom

Weir Minerals Africa and Middle East
Weir Minerals Africa and Middle East

Weir Minerals Europe, Middle East and Africa is a global supplier of excellent minerals solutions, including pumps, valves, hydrocyclones,...

VISIT SHOWROOM 
SBS Tanks
SBS Tanks

SBS® Tanks is a leading provider of innovative water security solutions with offices in Southern Africa, East and West Africa, the USA and an...

VISIT SHOWROOM 

Latest Multimedia

sponsored by

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION







sq:0.074 0.128s - 174pq - 2rq
Subscribe Now