Picture: The North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Sello Lehari/Facebook
By OBAKENG MAJE
North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Sello Lehari said 92 people lost their lives on various roads across the North West during the festive season. Lehari said there had been a steady and gradual reduction in fatalities in the past five years.
“For the year 2019/2020, there had been a 10% reduction followed by 8% the following year and a massive 27% in 2021/2022. This of course was due to travel restrictions imposed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This was followed by 17% when those restrictions were lifted for the 2022/2023 period. For the 2021/2022 period, there had been 142 crashes and we are happy that this figure had gone down to 94 last year and to 92 for the 2023/2024 period,” he said.
Lehari further said the disturbing pattern is that lifestyle exacerbates these crashes. He added that some of the factors that continuously increase fatalities are excessive drinking, excessive speeding, and excessive recklessness.
“The crash statistics we released are from the period starting on 1 December 2023 to 11 January 2024. For this period 92 lives had been lost on the Provincial roads from 113 crashes, which is 2% less than the same period last year.
“We attribute this reduction to the measures we implemented to ensure compliance with the traffic regulations. For this period, we began regular weekly law enforcement operations in various locations across the province in the last six months,” said Lehari.
He said among other contraventions for which road users were heavily penalised, were moving violations, transportation of contrabands, and unroadworthy vehicles. Lehari said as part of intensifying these measures, they have increased the working hours of the traffic officers to be visible on the roads 24 hours per day.
“We have also revamped traffic management with our new unit called The Eagles to ensure compliance is not compromised and is strictly applied. The Eagles are patrolling all arterial roads, including the N4 from our border with Gauteng next to Brits toll plaza all the way down to the Skilpadhek border post with Botswana.
“To ensure the efficiency of The Eagles, we have bought 30 high-powered vehicles including two which will secure the accident scenes. This will shorten the road closures as a result of the accident and are equipped with the latest technologies to ensure all processes are followed correctly,” he said.
Lehari said they have reduced the crashes in Ngaka Modiri Molema District by almost 60%, which is from 60 last year to 23 this year. He said in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, fatalities went down from 11 at the beginning of 2023 to 8 at the beginning of 2024, and have recorded 17 crashes in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District.
“The other noticeable trend is that more crashes happened between 6pm in the evening and 6am the following morning, which is 64 in total. There had been five head-on collisions that happened just before 23:00 during the night.
“One disturbing and growing trend is that 38 of the crash victims for this period are pedestrians and mostly were hit by vehicles during the night. However, we believe that with the measures they have put in place, they shall continue to ensure the safety of the road users,” said Lehari.
The Guardian 