APA-Pretoria (South Africa) Transport Minister Sindisiwe Chikunga has announced that over 700 people have so far died on South Africa’s roads since the beginning of the current festive season, with Gauteng province accounting for the most fatalities.
Announcing the midterm 2023/24 festive season’s countrywide statistics on Friday, Chikunga however said this year’s crashes had decreased by 0.8% compared with the same period last year.
“In total, 719 fatalities have been recorded in the first three weeks of the 2023/24 festive season compared with 751 in the same period last year.”
The five provinces of Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and Western Cape accounted for the 80% of fatalities, Chikunga said.
According to her, passenger overloading and pickups transporting people needed to be paid attention.
“Three of the four major crashes reported in this period involved overloaded pickups,” she said.
In one incident that happened in Gqeberha in Eastern Cape province, a pickup truck with 15 occupants collided with another vehicle, with four of the people in the truck dying and 11 others injured.
NM/jn/APA