More than 1 400 people died in road accidents over the festive season. This was announced by the Minister of Transport Sindisiwe Chikunga when she released the 2023/24 festive season road traffic statistics today at the N1 Grasmere Toll Gate. Gauteng recorded more deaths on the road while Free State saw a decline in road fatalities.

A DECLINE

Although 1 427 people died in road accidents over the festive period, it has been recorded as a 1.7 percent drop from the 2022/23 holiday period. Chikunga said most people who died were pedestrians aged between 25 and 44. "Human factors contributed 80.8 % of the crashes, environmental factors 10.4 percent and vehicle factors 8.8 percent. Most fatalities were recorded during the first, third and fourth week of December," she said. Chikunga said it was mainly men who died from these road fatalities and 40,9% of them were pedestrians. "The 2023/24 festive period shows that most crashes took place in the evening between 7 pm and 10 pm with the peak between 8 pm and 9 pm. Most fatalities were also recorded on Sundays, which is a new trend," Chikunga said.

BAD WEATHER 

Chikunga said some crashes were caused by the rainy weather which contributed to a lot of problems on the road. "Some drivers didn't modify their speed which resulted in avoidable crashes. Some motorists drove over flooded bridges which resulted in tragedy as their vehicles were washed away."

Chikunga provided provincial breakdown for road fatalities with five provinces recording a decline. She said this was due to the intense operations and high law enforcement visibility on the roads that stopped 1.4 million cars over the festive season.

• Free State recorded a 27.4% decline

• Eastern Cape recorded a 21.5% decline

• Northern Cape recorded a 15.7% decline

• Limpopo recorded an 8.4% decline

• North West recorded a 2.1% decline

• Gauteng recorded a 7.6% increase

• KwaZulu Natal recorded a 4.2% increase

• Mpumalanga recorded a 9.7% increase

• Western Cape recorded a 22.6% increase