- 10 Jan 2014
- Cape Argus
- Murray Williams and Sapa
Holiday toll nudges 1 400, but horror N1 crash in Cape gets year off to a black start
MAJOR CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS WERE DRUNK DRIVING, SPEEDING AND FAILURE TO WEAR SEATBELTS
IT WAS a summer holiday of carnage, with 1 376 people dying on the country’s roads between December 1 and January 7.
Even the fact that the figures announced by Transport Minister Dipuo Peters yesterday were 182 down on the tally a year ago did not seem much like good news.
Although the number of road deaths in the Western Cape was down last month, there has been a spike this month, largely because of the nine people who died in crash outside De Doorns on the N1 this week.
The provisional death toll on the Western Cape’s roads over the festive season was released yesterday by the Western Cape Transport Department and provided by the Department of Health’s Forensic Pathology Services.
Last month, 129 people died on the roads – down from 153 in the same month in 2012, 135 in 2011 and 150 in 2010.
Worryingly, the number of pedestrian deaths for last month was up, at 60 – as opposed to 55 in 2012, 50 in 2011 and 47 in 2010.
The number of deaths on motorbikes was up slightly, at 10, but passenger deaths were significantly down – at 32, compared with 59, 51 and 68 in previous Decembers.
By Wednesday morning, 37 people had died on the roads, up from 20, 24 and 30 in the preceding years’ first seven days.
Peters’s release of the provisional figures yesterday has sparked another row, with DA MP Ian Ollis saying the reporting period should end on Monday, after the coming weekend, when many people will be returning home from their holidays. Yesterday’s release meant any deaths over the weekend would be excluded.
But Peters brushed this criticism aside. “I am not going to respond to those who are sitting outside and barking when people are losing their lives. In fact, what we need to do is to capture numbers every day and notify South Africans on how many people are dying on our roads.
“Those who say we shouldn’t have released the statistics, they can continue speaking, we have work to do.”
Peters said most accidents were due to irresponsible and “disrespectful” conduct.
The major causes of accidents were drunk driving, speeding, reckless overtaking, driver fatigue, failure to wear seatbelts, unroadworthy vehicles, and unlicensed or illegally licensed drivers, she told reporters in Pretoria.
“May 2014 be the year that we turn the corner on road carnage and ensure that we drive with the right documents. There is only one licence issued by the Transport Department. We are in control over that and if you are reckless, we are going to withdraw your driver’s licence.”
Free State Roads and Transport MEC Butana Komphela said if he had his way he would eliminate driving schools.
“Minister, the driving schools have rampant corruption. I wish we would not have a driving school at all. They leave money in the cars for the traffic officer who is testing to pick up. I think we should do it, teaching learner drivers on our own. Many of the licences that are not okay are caused by these private driving schools.”
The DA has called for a special parliamentary investigation into the high death toll over the festive season.
Ollis said: “The investigation should result in the recommendation of programmes that will reduce the unnecessary loss of lives on our roads, as well as a review of the manner in which these deaths are reported by the Department of Transport.
“A major shift is needed to drastically reduce the number of lives lost on our roads.”
Ollis said the figures were also underreported, as the department used police reports to measure road deaths, and not data from forensic mortuaries.
“Minister Peters has a responsibility to report on the matter fairly. She has not done so,” Ollis said.
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