Transport and Public Works
In relation to road safety during the festive period, dated 1 December 2020 to 15 January 2021, in the Western Cape:
- How many (a) road crashes were recorded in the province and (b) fatalities through road crashes (inclusive of driver, passenger and pedestrian fatalities) were recorded in the province;
- how many (a) road crashes were recorded in the province and (b) fatalities through road crashes (inclusive of driver, passenger and pedestrian fatalities) were recorded in the province in the period (i) 1 December 2019 to 15 January 2020, (ii) 1 December 2018 to 15 January 2019 and (iii) 1 December 2017 to 15 January 2018;
With regard to the trends over the last several years:
- whether there has been a consistent increase or decrease in the number of (a) road crashes and (b) road-crash deaths;
- (a) to what can the increase or decrease in (i) road crashes and (ii) road-crash deaths be attributed and (b) what measures have been implemented to curb road crashes and the related deaths over the last several years and more recently during the 2020/21 festive period;
whether the national lockdown regulations have had an impact on road crashes and related deaths; if so, what are the relevant details?
- The Honourable D Mitchell is asked to note that the National Department of Transport, in conjunction with the RTMC, changed the 2020/21 Festive Season reporting period from 01 December 2020 - 15 January 2021 to 01 December 2020 – 11 January 2021.
Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela’s Festive Season media briefing on the 28th January 2021 was aligned to the National dates and the information as listed below will vary due to the period requested by Honourable D Mitchell.
(2) Listed below is the comparative analysis breakdown for the period 2017 - 2021 as requested
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Road User | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | Increase Decrease | 3 Year Average | Inc /Dec vs Avg (%) | ||
Cyclist | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 | -3 | 2.6 | -0.6 (-23%) | ||
Driver | 45 | 46 | 34 | 28 | -6 | 41.6 | -13.6 (-32.6%) | ||
Fell off Vehicle | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | -3 | 2.3 | -2.3 (-100%) | ||
Motorcycle Pillion | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -1 | 0.3 | -0.3 (-100%) | ||
Motor-cyclist | 10 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 6.3 | 1.7 (26.9%) | ||
Passenger | 70 | 79 | 36 | 40 | 4 | 58.3 | -18.3 (-31.3) | ||
Pedestrian | 81 | 76 | 74 | 63 | -11 | 77 | -14 (-18.2%) | ||
Fatalities | 210 | 207 | 159 | 141 | -18 | 192 | -51 (-26.5%) | ||
Crashes | Data Not Available | Data Not Available | 144 | 120 | -24 | NA | NA | ||
(3) Please refer to the afore-mentioned table to see the year on year statistics.
Compared to the average for Festive Season fatalities over the preceding three years, the year 2020/21 saw 141 fatalities versus an average of 192, a difference of 51 fatalities. Fatalities in the 2020/21 Festive Season were thus 26.5% lower than the average for the preceding three years.
(4) During the Festive period 2020/21 the Western Cape had the highest decrease of crashes and fatalities in the country as reflected below:
OVERALL PROVINCIAL ROUTES FATALITIES | ||||
Road User | Dec-19 | Jan-20 | Total | |
Cyclist | 2 | 0 | 2 | |
Driver | 8 | 4 | 12 | |
Motorcycle Pillion | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
Motor - cyclist | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Passenger | 17 | 4 | 21 | |
Pedestrian | 13 | 2 | 15 | |
Total fatalities | 41 | 10 | 51 | |
Crashes | 31 | 9 | 40 | |
OVERALL PROVINCIAL ROUTES FATALITIES | ||||
Road User | Dec-20 | Jan-21 | Total | |
Cyclist | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Driver | 10 | 0 | 10 | |
Motorcycle Pillion | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Motor - cyclist | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
Passenger | 11 | 10 | 21 | |
Pedestrian | 11 | 1 | 12 | |
Total fatalities | 33 | 11 | 44 | |
Crashes | 25 | 4 | 29 | |
In preparation for the introduction of the Festive Season, which was implemented under level 3 of the Disaster Management Act, we proactively re-modelled our approved Western Cape Traffic Law Enforcement Tactical Plan 2020/21 and law enforcement deployment approach, to pragmatically address inter alia:
- Fatigue management
- Public Transport
- Weighbridge/Freight awareness operations
- Driver and vehicle fitness operations
- Alcohol enforcement
- Moving violations
- Speed
- Seatbelts (Driver, front and rear)
- Pedestrians
- Inter-Provincial Corridor operations (EC/NC/WC)
- Integrated SAPS operations -DMA operations
The decrease in our overall crashes and the 15% reduction in fatalities can be directly attributed to the planning and coordination of the above interventions, but more importantly to the professionalism and dedication of our traffic officials.
(5) There was a slight reduction in comparative traffic volumes, which was recorded through our Average Speed Over Distance sites as listed below.
Festive Season Comparative Traffic Volume Trends
1 December 2018 till 11 January 2019 | 2 197 032 |
1 December 2019 till 11 January 2020 | 2 077 987 |
1 December 2020 till 11 January 2021 | 1 916 788 |
Our data sets at this stage indicate that there was a decrease in crashes and fatalities during the curfew hours. We will, however, further analyse our data sets to determine the timelines that contributed to our pedestrian fatalities which remain a concern.
