Last week, 64 people were arrested by Western Cape Provincial Traffic officers on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. During the same period, 15 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in our province.
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The first 16 days (December 1st to December 16th 2013) of the festive season have seen 66 deaths on our roads, compared to the 89 lives lost for the same period last year; this is a 26% reduction in road deaths compared to last year at this time. While this number remains unacceptably high, the reduction shows that our on-going efforts and initiatives are making tremendous progress in changing behaviour and saving lives on our roads.
In November this year, Safely Home launched the “It Takes A Second To Save A Life” multimedia seatbelts campaign targeted at vehicle occupants (passengers and drivers). Its aim being to encourage all vehicle occupants to Buckle Up, improve seatbelt compliance and reduce the high number of deaths we have seen in these categories in the past year. Notwithstanding a very bloody past weekend on our roads, we are already beginning to see the positive results of this campaign:
Pedestrian deaths remain the leading class of fatalities thus far at 30 deaths, which is still a 45% decrease from the 55 pedestrian deaths recorded last year at this time throughout the province.
The focus areas for our law enforcement partners remain drink driving, speed and most importantly at this time, fatigue management. The horror crashes we see on our roads, particularly on the long stretches like the N1 and the N2, can no doubt be attributed to one (if not all) of these contributing factors. Motorists travelling long distances will be pulled over and made to rest if they are deemed to be fatigued whilst on their journeys. The campaign that was initially targeted at long-distance public transport has, since last December, been extended to all classes of vehicles. We will continue to be tough on all motorists who do not comply with road rules that are aimed at saving the lives of all those who share these roads and rely on them to get to their holiday destinations.
We are also very confident that we will continue to see a decrease in road deaths and speed non-compliance brought about by our Average Speed Over Distance (ASOD) camera enforcement technology; the technology that we have (in recent months) extended to cover a total of 351.5 km of the province’s most dangerous roads. The ASOD system now includes:
We are now, as we have always been, committed to the realisation of the Safely Home goal of reducing road deaths by 50% by the end of 2014 and we will continue to new and innovative ways to achieving this goal. We maintain that the only way we will continue to move closer and closer to realising that target, will be through partnerships with all our road safety partners; the most important of whom being the many road users of this province, whose responsible road continue to save the many lives that may otherwise have been lost on our roads.
Last week, 64 people were arrested by Western Cape Provincial Traffic officers on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol. During the same period, 15 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in our province.
On Saturday, 23 March 2024, the Western Cape Government (WCG) officially launched our Easter road safety campaign for 2024.
The Western Cape Government is offering FREE ten-point vehicle checks by qualified examiners from Saturday, 23 March to Thursday, 28 March at venues in Cape Town and Drakenstein.
It is with great sadness that I extend my condolences to the loved ones of the ten people – seven adults and three children – who died in a road crash on the N7 between Vanrhynsdorp and Klawer on Sunday 17 March 2024.