Easter weekend this year was safer as Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula noted a decrease in 73 lives lost on South African roads. Photos: Flickr
Easter weekend was safer this year as 73 less lives lost, says Mbalula
Easter weekend this year was safer as Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula noted a decrease in 73 lives lost on South African roads.
Easter weekend this year was safer as Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula noted a decrease in 73 lives lost on South African roads. Photos: Flickr
Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula was at the Grasmere toll plaza, south of Johannesburg, on Thursday where he gave an update on the Easter road death statistics.
FEWER DEATHS ON THE ROADS THIS EASTER
Mbalula says 162 lives were lost on the roads this Easter weekend, a significant drop compared to the 235 fatalities recorded last year.
A total of 134 fatal crashes occurred this year compared with 189 in the previous year. Friday and Saturday were when a majority of the crashes took place.
The minister said that all provinces except for Mpumalanga and the Western Cape experienced a decrease in Easter road fatalities this year.
“This Easter period was marked by incessant rainfall throughout the country and floods that ravaged homes, infrastructure and left many families devastated in KZN, as well as parts of Eastern Cape. Churches with huge followings such as the Zion Christian Church did not have their annual Easter pilgrimage in compliance with the Covid-19 restrictions,”
said Mbalula.
He said the amount of traffic on most of the major routes in the country stayed unchanged, however, the devastating floods in KwaZulu-Natal did decrease the traffic on roads in the province.
The decrease in accidents was better encapsulated as a 61% drop in road fatalities in KZN from 54 to 21 deaths.
Mbalula says KZN’s decrease was the highest compared to the other provinces.
MPUMALANGA AND WESTERN CAPE HARDEST HIT
Meanwhile, Mpumalanga recorded a 27.8% rise from 18 road fatalities last year to 23 this Easter. The Western Cape recorded a 30.8% increase from 26 fatalities in 2021 to 34 this year.
The transport minister noted the trend that most accidents occurred between 4 am and 5 am during this Easter break compared to last year when they occurred at night.
Mbalula said a total of 2 395 traffic fines were issued for speeding this year compared with the 5 923 last year.
A total of 3 494 motorists were fined for operating unlicensed vehicles compared with the 5 677 last year and 2 134 drivers were fined for driving without using their seat belts compared to last Easter’s 2 351.
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