The shocking road fatality figures for the festive season reveal only a small part of a bigger and more tragic problem. The 1,714 deaths in December and part of January is tragic, but we should also take into account the more than 12,000 people who died on the roads during the rest of the year. We need to focus on the whole disaster and not just the festive season. One of the problems was that the Road Traffic Management Corporation has not published annual road fatality figures since 2011, when the number was given as 13,947, despite many appeals to do so. Since then things have got worse on our roads, not better. If we take increasing festive season figures as a guide, the annual fatalities are now probably more than 15,000, but even this may be short of the real number. When Africa Check investigated the problem, they found that under-reporting was likely and the figure could be 20% higher. One of the reasons for this is that not all road injury cases are followed up and many mor...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.