Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga said 225 people lost their lives on our roads during the Easter weekend, 64 more lives than we lost last year during the same period.
Chikunga said this in Midrand today when she was releasing the statistics on road fatalities during the Easter weekend when many people go on holiday or others go back home in different parts of the country.
Chikunga said she was disappointed at the high rate of crashes and fatalities which occurred during Easter.
“The total number of fatal crashes this year is 185 resulting in 225 fatalities as opposed to the same period the previous year when we recorded 135 fatal crashes that resulted in 161 fatalities,” she said.
She said most of those who perished are men, increasing by 3% from 2022.
“The statistics on gender classification shows that there was a decrease in female fatalities from 28% in 2022 to 19% in 2023 and male fatalities increased from 67% in 2022 to 70%. Most of these are young aspiring professionals whose careers were beginning to shine.
“They possessed the skills that are needed to grow our country’s economy and to reduce poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment,” she said.
Six provinces recorded an increase in the number of fatalities except the North West, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape where there were fewer accidents this year.
“An increase in fatalities was recorded in all provinces except in Mpumalanga, Western Cape and the North West and we congratulate these provinces for the work well done. The other six provinces recorded an increase which is a setback that may impact on our ability to attain the goals set out in the United Nations global road safety campaign to reduce road carnages by half in 2030 if not changed.”
Chikunga said pedestrians contributed the most to the fatalities.
“The high number of road users who perished on our roads are pedestrians, who accounted for 44,4% of all fatalities, followed by passengers at 27,7%. Drivers accounted for 25.6%, cyclists at 1,3% while the road user status of the 1% could not be determined.”
