More than 1,400 fatalities on South Africa’s roads over the festive season
Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga has revealed that 1,427 people died in road accidents in South Africa over the 2023/24 festive season.
Additionally, there were 1,184 recorded fatal crashes.
This is a 1.7% and 2.3% drop from the 2022/23 holiday period, respectively.
Chikunga announced this at a media briefing on January 24, 2024, saying that despite showing a decline compared to the same period last year, there were “many avoidable accidents,” and behind the numbers are “actual human beings whose hopes, aspirations and ambitions were dashed.”
Of these fatalities, the minister said that:
- 40.9% were pedestrians;
- 33.6% were passengers;
- 24.6% were drivers;
- 0.8% were cyclists.
Majority of fatalities were reported to be between the ages of 25 and 44.
Of the crashes in the festive season, 80.8% were due to human factors, 10.4% were as a result of environmental factors (including heavy rainfall and flooding), and 8.8% were due to vehicle factors. Additionally, most crashes occurred between 19:00 and 22:00, peaking between 20:00 and 21:00.
Most of the crashes occurred during the first, third and fourth weeks of December, as people were heading to holiday and “were having end-of-year parties,” said the minister.
The breakdown of road accident fatalities during the festive season per province were given as follows:
- Free State recorded a 27.4% decline
- Eastern Cape recorded a 21.5% decline
- Northern Cape recorded a 15.7% decline
- Limpopo recorded an 8.4% decline
- North West recorded a 2.1% decline
- Gauteng recorded a 7.6% increase
- KwaZulu Natal recorded a 4.2% increase
- Mpumalanga recorded a 9.7% increase
- Western Cape recorded a 22.6% increase
There were also around 168,000 new registered vehicles on the road during the 2023/24 festive period, compared to the previous year.
Chikunga said that although road fatalities remain high, the decline was made possible by the “intensified law enforcement operations conducted and the high police visibility throughout the country.”
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