Cape Town - Two hundred and seven people died in motor vehicle-related accidents across the Western Cape during the peak traffic festive season, according to the Department of Transport.
On Tuesday, Transport and Public Works MEC Daylin Mitchell and Traffic Law Enforcement acting director Vigie Chetty released the province’s 2021/22 road safety statistics.
Speaking at an event, held at the Gene Louw Traffic College, in Brackenfell, Mitchell released the department’s comparative analytical report for the 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 festive seasons, citing that it provided a realistic outlook of progress based on the operational environment, and taking into consideration that the 2020/21 festive season period was during lockdown level 3.
“Unlike during the previous festive season, it was very likely that we would witness higher traffic volumes in the province because there were no restrictions placed on inter-provincial travel, as well as no stipulated curfew period.
“The school and industry closure and opening dates in 2022 also presented us with a staggering movement of traffic volumes, which added additional pressure on all law enforcement agencies to implement the necessary operational deployment and mandates to control traffic.
“This is to ensure effective and safe traffic flow on all road networks, with the ultimate objective of ensuring that all road users reach their destinations safely and unharmed,” Mitchell said.
According to the department, 3 877 918 vehicles were sighted on ASOD sites between December 1, 2021 and January 11, 2022 – almost double the number of vehicles that were recorded during the same period in 2020/21.
“Overall passenger fatalities increased to 70 in 2021/22 compared to 38 in 2021/21. The number of impounded vehicles increased from 74 in 2020/21 to 279 in 2021/22, while the number of discontinued vehicles increased from 565 to 764 in the same reporting period.
“Traffic officials said they arrested 154 drunk drivers, compared to 89 in 2020/21, and recorded an increase in motorists offering bribes to our officers,” said Mitchell.
Acting provincial director for Traffic Law Enforcement Vigie Chetty said: “We found that motorists were very open about offering bribes to our officers, especially on the busy corridors where our officers were. However, our officers dealt with that quite adequately. In the Western Cape, we don’t tolerate bribes, fraud and corruption.”
Chetty also touched on the impact of adverse weather conditions in several parts of the province, which impacted the directive’s planned operations. “Adverse weather conditions in the Central Karoo and Garden Route districts during the festive season impacted planned operations, accessibility to major routes, including Meiringspoort Pass, and the availability of resources,” said Chetty.
Road safety non-governmental organisation (NGO) South Africans Against Drunk Driving (SADD), welcomed the provincial statistics, saying that it was concerned about the increase in fatalities, but was pleased with the Transport Department’s efforts.
SADD director Caro Smit said: “I think the Western Cape must be congratulated for working on safer vehicles, that’s one of the aims in the Global Plan in the new Decade of Action for Road Safety, which started in 2021 and will run until 2030.
“If we look at the number of impounded vehicles, it went up from 74 to 279 – which is an enormous difference which is wonderful. Discontinued vehicles also went up.
“One area of concern was the deaths of cyclists, which also went up,” said Smit.
The release of the Festive Season 2021/22 Report coincided with the official training of the Traffic Training and Development Directorate’s 104 student traffic cohort.