Ways to reduce accident rate are being ignored
Latest figures show deaths are much more likely to occur in certain provinces
Last week, the Road Traffic Management Corporation produced its annual report for 2016. It was a shocker; 14,071 people died on our roads, 1,127 more than in 2015. The report was a mine of information on the causes of accidents, the times of day they occurred, the days of the week and how women were much safer drivers than men, but it failed to notice the most alarming factor and the one that cries out for immediate attention. In two different bar charts, far apart in the 61-page report, the Road Traffic Management Corporation provides the total number of vehicles registered in each province and it gives us the number of fatal crashes in each province. When the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry put the information together, the elephant in the room emerged large and threatening. Some explanation is necessary. If, say, a province has 20% of the country’s vehicles on its roads, it would be reasonable to expect that it would have a matching fatal accident rate of about 20%. Wrong. ...
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