SA braces for holiday season crash carnage

SOUTH Africa is known for its horrific fatalities from road crashes during the festive season, as many holiday makers criss-cross the country to various destinations.

Between December 1 last year and January 11 this year, a total of 1448 people died on the roads in 1 210 fatal crashes over the 2020/21 festive season, compared with 1 616 over the same period in 2019/20.

Richard Benson from the Road Safety Action Campaign has warned of catastrophic road crashes and deaths of at least 2000 people as we enter into the festive season. He said international road laws were not adhered to. and thousands of people were expected to die on the roads from now until the end of January.

“Nearly 90% of all our road deaths would be avoided if the government simply copied the road safety rules laid down by the UN and others. A number of road safety experts agree that the horrific road carnage can be cut by more than half with a court order obliging the government to comply with the UN guidelines on speed limits. Now one must ask, which political party, company or individuals want to save thousands of lives a year? It is criminal negligence not to act and save lives.”

Benson said that black people and other pedestrians were more likely to die on the roads because these were the people who largely lacked safe private transport. He stated that inaction on the road warnings clearly indicated that “Black Lives don’t Matter”.

Founder and director of South Africans Against Drunk Driving, Caro Smit, said preventing the deaths and injuries, which were often not talked about, would also help prevent poverty as many families lost important members. “We need to keep testing for alcohol, we have more than 13 million drivers in the country, therefore, we should be doing 13 million tests of alcohol so that people will know the chance of them being stopped and tested are very high and that drunk driving is a crime in South Africa.

“We have excellent road rules in the country, but the enforcement of them is very poor and the other thing is the poor sentencing of people that are found drunk driving. Apart, from testing, we need to make sure that paperwork is filled in correctly as people have the tendency of challenging the courts when facing drunk driving charges …”

Smit said the number of motorists and passengers who wore seatbelts was low. “This is where government needs to step in, to ensure that it is compulsory in buses, taxis, and light vehicles because not doing so results in people being thrown out of windows during road accidents, resulting in loss of lives,” she said.

“Nearly 90% of all our road deaths would be avoided if the government simply copied the road safety rules laid down by the United Nations and others

RICHARD BENSON Road Safety Action Campaign