The South African Road Federation (SARF) says despite a slight reduction in fatalities on the country’s roads over the festive season, South Africa still holds the “unenviable” record of having the second-highest road accident fatality rate per 100 000 people in Africa.

With 1 118 fatal crashes and 1 368 fatalities recorded between December 1, 2014, and January 5, 2015, the 2014/15 Festive Season Road Accident Statistics indicated a slight reduction of 2.5% for fatal crashes and 0.6% for fatalities.

“Transport Minister Dipuo Peters rightly pointed out that this is no cause for celebration. We agree with the Minister that urgent action must be taken to put an end to this unnecessary and avoidable carnage,” SARF president Innocent Jumo said in response to the statistics, which were released on Friday.

He added that the federation was in agreement with Peters’ view that decisive and uncompromising action had to be taken against lawlessness and irresponsible road use.

“However, we feel that, in line with the Minister’s comments that the scale of resources for road safety should be given the same attention as other priorities, precedence must also be given to safe road infrastructure.

“This includes adequate and ongoing road maintenance and the sufficient upgrading of roadside safety barriers, bridge railings and road signs,” he noted. 

Jumo further emphasised the need to focus resources on the establishment of a funded programme to improve road safety infrastructure in line with the safe-systems approach, as well as the institutionalisation of the Road Safety Auditing process on all road construction projects.

“We continue to offer our unwavering support to the Department of Transport and all of its agencies in an effort to drastically reduce road fatalities in South Africa,” he stated.