Johannesburg – The Transport Department’s road safety campaign over December has been hailed as a success with the number of fatal car accidents on South Africa’s roads over the period decreasing.
From 1 December to 6 January 2008 the number of car accidents went down to 1 327 from last year’s 1 363.

Transport Minister Jeff Radebe, speaking at the release of the festive season’s road accident statistics, Tuesday, said the success of Operation Safer Festive Season was due to visible and effective policing.

“Operation Safer Festive Season, which was one of the special interventions under the Rolling Enforcement Plan, demonstrated the value of harmonisation of visible and effective policing by all authorities,” he said.

The Free State saw the largest decrease in fatal car accidents by 29.6 percent, the Northern Cape decreased by 16.6 percent, and KwaZulu-Natal decreased by 13.3 percent.

The number of fatal crashes per 10 000 registered vehicles also decreased by 8.39 percent, from a rate of 1.78 over the 2006/07 period to a rate of 1.63 over the 2007/08 period, he highlighted.

The festive season, which sees a massive increase in activity on the country’s roads in a very brief period of time, last year claimed the lives of 1 636 between 1 December 2006 and 6 January 2007.

The number of people killed over the same period in 2008 decreased to 1 419.

Nationally, driver fatalities decreased by 12.2 percent, passenger fatalities decreased by 10.2 percent, and pedestrian fatalities decreased by 16.4 percent.

The minister highlighted that the momentum of Operation Safer Festive Season will be maintained throughout the year and not only during the peak seasons of festive season and Easter period.

“The next campaign to roll out under the Rolling Enforcement Plan will be ‘Operation Juggernaut’ during the month of February 2008.”

Mr Radebe said February’s operation will aim to improve law compliance on freight and passenger transport vehicles and also on buses, mini-bus taxis, metered taxis, learner transport vehicles and luxury coaches.

“The department takes comfort in that tougher measures were taken against unruly elements on our roads.

“Traffic authorities arrested 2 046 drivers for various offences … the figures I have mentioned reflect that we can do better in terms of road safety by observing and respecting the rules of the road.

“We know that this is a winnable battle,” said the minister. - BuaNews