![Cumulative Comparison Graph Road Fatalities Graph](https://www.westerncape.gov.za/sites/www.westerncape.gov.za/files/road_fatalities_graph_1.png)
Joint Statement by Robin Carlisle, Minister of Transport and Public Works and Dan Plato, Minister of Community Safety
The December 2012/January 2013 festive season has been one of commendable hard work by Safely Home and all our road safety partners.
We have learnt valuable lessons and have moved closer to our goal of halving road deaths in the province by December 2014. Our approach remains aggressive and focused, using all available information and emergent trends to guide the decisions we take.
Together, through our efforts and road users heeding our calls to be responsible on our roads, we have achieved a cumulative 29% reduction in road deaths since the beginning of 2009. While this is an achievement to be celebrated, we still have a long way to go.
The festive season is measured from 1 December 2012 to 31 January 2013.
Fatalities:
December 2011 | 153 | December 2012 | 157 |
January 2012 | 104 | January 2013 | 79 |
Total | 257 | Total: | 236 |
The earlier days of December saw an alarmingly high number of lives being lost at a rate of five per day. Passengers overtook pedestrians as the leading class of fatalities in that period. This immediately alerted us to a serious, and deadly, lack of seatbelt compliance. Passengers, particularly in the rear seats were clearly not buckling-up.
In addition, on major roads, there was clear evidence of travelling “TOO FAST - TOO FAR - TOO LONG", leading to the frequent unlawful overtaking across the barrier line by drivers who were often fatigued.
As evidence became available the following enforcement actions were intensified:
More enforcement during the Festive Season Road Safety Campaign:
Western Cape Fatality Statistics
Year-on-year, we continue to see the deaths on the Province’s roads decrease and are confident that we will in fact reach our target of halving road deaths by the end of 2014, and continue to save the many lives that would otherwise be lost so senselessly.
See Cumulative Comparison Graph
Our efforts have seen an 8% reduction in the past festive season fatalities compared to the December 2011/January 2012 period. Over this festive season, 236 lives were lost compared to the 257 people killed over the same period last year. The festive season figures show:
Had it not been for our joint seat-belt interventions, this number of passenger/driver deaths would certainly have been much higher. These efforts will continue as buckling-up is, in virtually all cases, the difference between life and death when people are involved in horrific crashes.
See Category of Road User Graph
Since 2008 till December 2012, Pedestrian deaths have gone down from 843 to 586 (31%) but still account for 47% of the total fatalities. The only class of fatalities to increase during this period is motorcyclists, up by 33% from 63 in 2008 to 84 in 2012.
The comparative figures for December 2008 to December 2012 are:
Comparative January figures are:
January 2013 saw the loss of 79 lives (down from 104 for the same period last year), the lowest figure for any month since 2009 when we launched our Safely Home campaign.
While the numbers are still high, especially pedestrian deaths, the trend is downward and moving in the right direction. Through our Safely Home campaign, we are steadily lowering the loss of life on our roads, thanks to the hard work and concerted efforts of our traffic officers. The Western Cape is the only province to offer a 24 hour, seven day a week provincial traffic service. Together with the ever-increasing responsible road-user behaviour by members of the public and citizens taking responsibility for safe road-user behaviour with increased law enforcement we can make our roads safer and give life to our motto of “Better Together”.
We offer our sincere thanks to all our men and women who spent the season on the roads saving lives, including Provincial Traffic officers, municipal traffic officers and South African Police Service members who collaborate on road blocks and law enforcement operations. We also extend our condolences to the families and friends of the 236 people that tragically lost their lives on our roads this festive season.
Siphesihle Dube
Media Liaison Officer
Ministry of Transport and Public Works
Tel: 021 483 8954
Cell: 084 233 3811
E-mail: Siphesihle.Dube@westerncape.gov.za
Mireille Wenger
Head of Ministry
Ministry of Community Safety
Western Cape Government
Cell: 073 814 9393