At least 164 people have been killed on the Western Caper’s roads during the 2023/2024 festive season period.
This is an increase of over 20% compared to the year before.
Mobility MEC Ricardo Mackenzie released the festive season road traffic statistics, on Wednesday.
The road safety campaign started from the 1st of December 2023 until the 11th of January 2024.
Mackenzie says municipal roads recorded the most deaths.
“On municipal roads, there were 108 fatalities, up from 68 fatalities last year. On provincial roads, we had 56 fatalities, compared to 63 fatalities over the 2022-2023 festive season. Although we welcome this 11% decrease in fatalities on provincial roads, one death on our roads is one too many.”
Transport authorities in the province say road users’ bad behaviour is hampering their efforts to improve safety on the roads.
Provincial traffic services say 75% of the total number of fatalities recorded, were due to bad behaviour.
Mackenzie says motorists need to come on board to prevent further senseless road deaths.
“ You can’t have a traffic officer in someone’s car, you can’t have a traffic officer put on someone’s seatbelt. In one of the incidents that we experienced in Beaufort West, a truck driver who was involved in a crash, admitted that he drove from Johannesburg all the to Cape Town and he was tired. That’s reckless and irresponsible behaviour”.