Pretoria - Despite a drop in fatal crashes on South Africa's roads this past festive season, authorities say the number of people killed on the country's roads every year remains unacceptably high.
At least 1 551 people lost their lives in road accidents across the country between the beginning of December to 5 January - down by about 200 as compared to the 1 761 recorded in the same period of the previous year.
Presenting the preliminary statistics on Tuesday, Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele slammed the behaviour of some motorists, saying the majority of accidents would have been avoided if people paid attention to road safety campaigns by his department.
Speeding, unsafe overtaking and fatigue were singled out as a cause of the majority of accidents.
While Ndebele attributed the drop in fatalities to strict law enforcement, he called for more community involvement in the fight against what he described as carnage on the country's roads.
"Speeding, speeding, speeding - we cannot over emphasise this point: speed kills," he said. He made an example of a Johannesburg motorist who was caught travelling at 208 km/h and three times over the legal alcohol limit.
"The question every South African must ask is, who it is going to be this month? Which one thousand is it going to be in February?" Ndebele said, referring to a study by the Road Traffic Management Corporation, which found that at least 1 000 or more people died on South African roads every month and over 13 000 annually.
The figures are exceedingly high compared to countries like Australia and New Zealand, where less than 120 road deaths were recorded each month.
A provincial breakdown shows KwaZulu-Natal was where most fatal crashes occurred, with 20 people dying in a single accident on 23 December. Gauteng recorded 200 fatal crashes, followed by the Eastern Cape with 169, while Limpopo and Western Cape had 155 and 127 fatal crashes respectively. The Northern Cape proved to be the safest province, with just 35 fatal crashes recorded there.
Authorities have vowed tougher action, with amendments in the Road Traffic Act already having led to many errant drivers having their licenses suspended.
The amendments allow for the suspension of a driver's license for anyone caught driving over 30km/h of the prescribed speed limit. The suspension ranges from anything from six months to 10 years, depending on the number of offenses.
Ndebele also announced on Tuesday that a new unit to support law enforcement officers will commence operations in Gauteng from April. It will assist in visible policing and speedy prosecution of traffic offenders.
More than four million vehicles were stopped and over two million fines were issued throughout the festive season, well above the one million a month target announced by the Department of Transport in August last year.
