Metro Emergency Services reported that 92 people were involved in 17 road accidents on Grahamstown roads from 1 December to 4 January, with 10 deaths, including a 7-year-old child who was hit by a car on Boxing Day.
Metro Emergency Services reported that 92 people were involved in 17 road accidents on Grahamstown roads from 1 December to 4 January, with 10 deaths, including a 7-year-old child who was hit by a car on Boxing Day.
Grahamstown SAPS spokesperson Captain Mali Govender said the child had been killed on the afternoon of December 26, on Raglan Road. A case of culpable homicide has been opened. Raglan Road had already been the scene of another death when a person died in a collision there on Christmas Day.
The accident with the biggest number of deaths was on December 4, when a horror crash involving a taxi left five people dead. As Grocott's reported last month, the taxi was en route to Grahamstown from Cape Town when it crashed into a barrier at the top of Howieson's Poort. Five people were burnt beyond recognition.
"This year was quieter than the previous year's festive season," said Ansley Finlay Duplessis, the acting chief officer at Metro Emergency Services. "My belief is that this is because of the strict law enforcement this year. I hope this continues."
He said the road safety preparation carried out before and during the 2010 Fifa World Cup had equipped them to deal efficiently with road accidents. A statement from the national Road Traffic Management Corporation, which carries out the Arrive Alive campaign, said more than 7000 drivers had been arrested for various offences, including drinking and driving, reckless and negligent driving and overloading of public passenger transport vehicles.
In its preliminary statistics for people who had died on South African roads from 1 December January 4, the corporation said that from 1 133 fatal crashes, 1 358 people had died. Last year 1 548 people died in 1 204 fatal crashes during the same period.
Collins Letsoalo, Acting CEO of the corporation said: “We have identified drinking and driving as a key focal area for 2011 and regular blitzes, roadblocks and patrols by marked and unmarked vehicles will ensure that drunk drivers and pedestrians are removed from the road.”
