NC records lowest festive death toll

THE DEPARTMENT of Transport, Safety and Liaison in the Province has welcomed the reduction in road fatalities in the country, in which the Northern Cape recorded the lowest fatalities (39 deaths) over the festive season.

Transport Minister, Sibusiso Ndebele, released the preliminary figures for the 2011 festive season road death toll this week.

kwazulu-natal had the highest road fatalities at 256 followed by 207 in Gauteng while 156 crashes occurred in the Eastern Cape. In Limpopo 137 were recorded while there were 121 road deaths in the Western Cape, 120 in Mpumalanga, 98 in Free State and 96 in the North West.

The MEC for Transport, Safety and Liaison, Patrick Mabilo, believed that the success of the Province was due to participation of the community, religious leaders and taxi operations in the Arrive Alive campaign.

“The presence of the police, greater visibility of traffic police officers, roadblocks and stop-and-search operations also brought about greater road discipline. “We will continue with road safety operations in an effort to reduce road fatalities by a further 60 percent. The death of eight people on our roads in the Province is a bad start to the year.”

He stated that regulations would be implemented to ensure that long distance drivers received sufficient rest or were accompanied by a second driver in the event of fatigue.