The North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management said it is pleased with progress made in reducing road fatalities across the province.
According to the 2023/2024 Festive Season Road Crash Statistics released by MEC Sello Lehari, from 01 December 2023 to 11 January 2024 there has been 113 vehicle collisions from which 92 lives were lost from, marking a 2% decrease.
‘’We attribute this reduction to the measures we implemented in ensuring compliance with the traffic regulations.
For this period, we began regular weekly law enforcement operations in various locations across the province in the last six months.
These joint operations were intensified during the October Transport Month, where fines were issued for non-compliant drivers,’’ said Lehari.
The MEC applauded the province for recording a steady and gradual reduction of fatalities in the past five years.
“For the year 2019/2020, there had been a 10% reduction followed by 8% the following year and a massive 27% in 2021/2022.
This of course was due to travel restrictions imposed because of Covid-19.
This was followed by 17% when those restrictions were lifted for the 2022/2023 period.
For the period 2021/2022, there had been 142 crashes, and we are happy that this figure had gone down to 94 last year and to 92 for the 2023/2024 period,’’ lauded the MEC.
Furthermore, the department said it was able to address other road law offences including but not limited to penalising users for moving violations, transportation of contrabands and unroadworthy vehicles.
According to Lehari, the increased number of traffic officers on the provinces roads has helped save lives.
The recently launched unit called The Eagles, conduct patrols 24 hours per day at main roads including the borders between the province and Gauteng, next to the Brits toll plaza down to the Skilpadhek border post with Botswana.
“Their presence has ensured that we reduce crashes in Bojanala District from 37 last year to 24 this year.
“We have reduced the crashes in Ngaka Modiri Molema District by almost 60% which is from 60 last year to 23 this year. In the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, fatalities went down from 11 at the beginning of 2023 to 8 at the beginning 2024 and have recorded 17 crashes in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District,’’ added the MEC.
He also sent a stern warning to motorists who don’t adhere to the rules of the road and urged pedestrians to exercise caution all the time.
