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Annually an estimated 1,3million people die on roads globally.

Every day approximately 3200 people are killed on roads around the

world.

South Africa contributes roughly 40 deaths per day and 14000 deaths per

annum annually.

The country’s mortality rate of 28 per 100 000 citizens is one of the worst

in the world.

It is also the largest unnatural killer of children in South Africa.

Road crashes have become recognized internationally as a social and

economic burden, particularly in developing countries.

The most badly affected by road traffic incidents are the poor.

Estimated population: around 50 million

Number of provinces: nine

Number of official languages: eleven

Estimated kilometre road network: 720 000kms

Large percentage of population relies on public transport of which 156 000 are mini-bus taxis.

Number of traffic officers: approximately 17000 of which about 9000 are metropolitan police members

Traffic enforcement in SA is a concurrent function.

Oct 2013 Province Total

GA KZ WC EC FS MP NW LI NC RSA

Motorised

Veh's

Motorcars 2,676,841 878,090 1,100,786 400,987 288,266 361,274 277,157 269,368 112,493 6,365,262

Minibuses 113,935 47,303 32,581 21,111 11,939 21,382 16,743 19,911 4,288 289,193

Buses 17,760 7,224 5,880 3,572 2,615 6,743 3,528 5,222 1,519 54,063

Motorcycles 148,285 35,094 82,515 23,866 21,399 20,974 15,579 10,472 8,446 366,630

LDV's -

Bakkies

729,672 320,442 288,576 180,525 121,988 185,865 136,716 190,652 71,290 2,225,726

Trucks 132,630 50,591 37,564 22,365 20,548 36,427 17,872 22,408 9,408 349,813

Other &

Unkwn

37,920 33,452 36,519 15,722 39,747 28,130 26,123 16,540 8,977 243,127

Sub-Total 3,857,043 1,372,196 1,584,421 668,148 506,502 660,795 493,718 534,573 216,421 9,893,814

Towed

Veh's

Caravans 41,085 8,004 16,729 5,414 7,951 10,234 6,793 5,491 3,071 104,772

Heavy

Trailers

56,221 26,104 16,261 7,833 16,022 24,612 10,763 7,457 5,379 170,652

Light

Trailers

312,564 77,294 126,391 51,120 60,160 58,836 49,610 37,096 25,875 798,946

Unknown 2,687 1,672 2,300 1,324 2,072 2,130 2,491 1,348 702 16,723

Sub-Total 412,557 113,074 161,681 65,691 86,205 95,812 69,657 51,392 35,027 1,091,093

All Vehicles 4,269,600 1,485,269 1,746,101 733,838 592,707 756,606 563,374 585,964 251,448 10,984,907

Year Number of Fatalities

2009 13768

2010 13967

2011 13954

Note: The number of fatalities for 2012 was 12 211. It should be noted that these figures are preliminary. The table above provide the number of fatalities per year from 2009 to 2011. In comparison an increase of 1.45% was recorded between 2009 and 2010. A decrease of 0.1% was recorded between 2010 and 2011.

User Group 2009 % 2009 2010 % 2010 2011 % 2011

Drivers 4066 30 4106 29 4189 30

Passengers 5023 36 5253 38 4787 34

Pedestrians 4678 34 4609 33 4978 36

Total 13768 100 13967 100 13954 100

The table above provide the fatalities per road user per year. The percentage for drivers was around 30% for the past three years. With the exception of 2010, a fluctuation for passengers was between 34 % and 36% for 2009 and 2011. The same trend has been observed for pedestrians, whereby a decrease was observed from 2009 with 34% to 33% in 2010, then increase to 36% in 2011

The figure above shows the contribution by each province to the total fatalities. With an exception of Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Northern Cape, other provinces have recorded a decrease or a no change in this regard.

The contributory factors are circumstantial elements that are present at the time of the crash and are generally classified under four main categories, namely: human, vehicle, roadway

and the environment.

The contributory factors to road crashes are generally classified under 3 main categories as follows:

Factor 2009 2010

Human 82.85 84.91

Vehicle 9.13 5.79

Road &Environment 8.02 9.3

The human factor contributed 82,85% to fatal crashes during 2009 and 84.91% in 2010. Vehicle factor contributed decreased from 9.13% in 2009 to 5.79% in 2010. The road and environment contributed 8,02% in 2009 and 9.3% in 2010.

The reported contributory factors to fatal crashes during 2009 and 2010 are reflected in the general and respective human, vehicle and road and environment figures below

Vehicle (9.13%)Road (8.02%)

Human (82.85%)

Contributory Factors to Fatal Crashes2009

Factor 2009 2010

Human Speed too high for circumstances Speed too high for circumstances

Pedestrian jaywalking Pedestrian jaywalking

Hit-and-run Hit-and-run

Vehicle Tyre burst Tyre burst

Brakes faulty Brakes faulty

Steering faulty Steering faulty

Road &Environment Sharp bend Sharp bend

Poor condition of road surface Poor condition of road surface

Poor visibility Poor visibility

The major crash investigation data was used to analyse the contributory factors for 2011. The following were the leading human factors: driver failing to keep a proper lookout, fail to keep vehicle under control, overtook when unsafe. The top two leading vehicle factors were tyre burst, vehicle maintenance poor/in adequate. The top three leading factors for road and environment were traffic light, poor condition of road surface and road signs poor / inadequate.

The graph above reflects the comparison of day-of-week crashes between 2010 and 2011 which indicates, amongst others, increase in crashes that happened on Sundays and Mondays.

It further shows that during 2011 almost one quarter (24,16%) of the weekly crashes happened on a Saturday, and 61,27% of all weekly fatal crashes happened over weekends from Friday to Sunday.

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2009 2010

% of Fatal Crashes per Time of Day

• The above information shows the percentage of crashes for the respective hours of the day during 2009-2010. • Most crashes occurred between 16h00 to 22h00.

Year Fatalities

Deaths/100 000

population

Deaths/10 000

registered

vehicles

2009 13768 27.91 16.22

2010 13967 27.94 15.84

2011 13954 27.58 15.25

The number of fatalities per 10,000 registered motorised vehicles decreased by 0,20 (1,22%) from 16,22 during 2009 to 16,02 during 2010

The number of fatalities per 100,000 human population increased by 0,03 (0,09%) from 27,91 during 2009 to 27,94 during 2010.

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GA KZ WC EC FS MP NW LI NC RSAProvince

2009 2010

Fatalities per 100,000 Human Pop

ROAD LOCATION LENGTH (km)

R23 N3 (sth of Heidelberg) – N11 (Volksrust) 178

R24 R28 (Krugersdorp) – N14 14

R28 N12 (Westonaria) – R24 (Krugersdorp) 30

R36 N4 (Ntokozweni) – N2 (Ermelo) 109

R61 N6 (sth of Queenstown) – N2 (Oslo Beach) 491

R71 N1 (polokwane) – R36 (Tzaneen) 95

R80 R55 (Bremer Str, Pretoria) – M35 Soshanguve 19

R 102

N2 (Empangeni) – N2 (Mount Edgecombe) 155

R568 R573 (kwamhlanga) – N4 (Bronkhorstspruit) R104 / R25)

51

R573 R513 (Zambezi Dr) – R568 (Kwamhlanga) 57

ROAD LOCATION LENGTH (km)

N1 N3/M1 (Sandton) – R508 (Irwin St, Musina) 500

N12 Potchefstroom – N1 (Devland) 103

N1 N12 (Devland) – N12 (Diepkloof) 6

N12 N1 (Diepkloof) – N3 (Gosforth Park) 21

N2 R36 (Ermelo) – R102 (Empangeni) 404

N2 R102 (Mount Edgecomb) – N6 (East London) 630

N3 M1 (near Sandton) – Durban 566

N4 R25 (Bronkhorstspruit) – R40 (Nelspruit) 258

N4 (nth of Ntokozweni – west of R539 int’n) 60

N6 Griffiths St (Queenstown) – N2 (East London) 175

Total 3922

* During weekends, 65% of all fatal crashes can be attributed to the abuse of alcohol by both, drivers and pedestrians.

Of the drivers tested for alcohol, 42% of those tested positive are women and 58% are male.

Abuse of alcohol is especially prevalent amongst the urban upwardly mobile, the youth and other age categories in general, who do so mostly because they perceive the chances of being detected as being very low.

Road crashes involving pedestrians are among the biggest contributor to fatalities on our roads.

Both, urban and day-time offence rates show extremely high offence rates clearly indicating that pedestrians of all ages disregard road rules at great personal risk.

Jay-walking, walking on freeways, drunken pedestrians and pedestrians not visible at night remain the biggest challenges.

Only about 67% of front seat occupants buckle up and that too, for long journeys.

The seat-belt wearing rate for short, local trips is significantly lower.

Rear seat occupancy rate is at a dismal 2% nationally.

Research indicates that if the seatbelt rate for front and rear seat passengers is improved to 80%, there would be an automatic 30% reduction in fatalities.

* 90% of all crashes are preceded by one or more

traffic violations;

Which means most crashes are therefore caused by human error;

…meaning it is an attitude and behavioural problem;

Approach therefore requires decisive and vigorous, targeted and consistent enforcement

RSA is a signatory to the United Nations Decade of Action campaign.

Target: reduce fatalities by 50% by the year 2020

Question is: are we geared to realize this objective considering that enforcement bears the bigger responsibility of reducing offences

and casualties?