South Africa
Fewer accidents recorded over #Easter─── 06:45 Tue, 19 Apr 2022
One fatal accident was reported on the N3 thus far and at least four crashes occurred in total over the weekend, which is a significant drop from last year.
Although road deaths were predicted to be on an upward trajectory this year, authorities say they were surprised to see lower traffic volumes, crashes and fatalities nationwide, specifically over the Easter long weekend, compared to previous years.
With traffic volumes that picked up as holidaymakers returned from the Easter break on Monday, over 15 road fatalities were recorded in Gauteng.
On Saturday, The Citizen reported that 22 people lost their lives following car crashes in the three provinces.
Eleven fatalities were recorded in the Western Cape, while there were also seven deaths confirmed in Limpopo and four in Mpumalanga.
This brings the total numbers of deaths to 38, in addition to the fatalities recorded in Gauteng.
According to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), most crashes took place in the early hours of the morning or during the night.
According to N3 Toll Concessions operations manager, Thania Dhoogra, there was one fatal accident reported on the N3 thus far and at least four crash incidents in total were reported over the weekend so far.
“The statistics thus far from a fatality perspective and from a number of crashes perspective over this Easter weekend have been really good. Although any fatality is one too many,” she said.
Also read: Motorists cautioned as #Easter weekend ends
Dhoogra said their forecast was that there would be extremely busy traffic volumes on the road on Thursday and Friday last week, with “return traffic from early [on Monday] morning, peaking between 9am and 3pm and that hasn’t really panned out”.
“What we have seen [on Monday] is that in the past two hours traffic volumes have increased. We’re now seeing over 1 100 vehicles an hour, going to the Mooi River Toll Plaza,” she added.
“But a typical Easter weekend would have seen us recording volumes of about 2 500 vehicles an hour.”
She also said emergency and law enforcement services continued to be on high alert yesterday, and, if necessary, the Roads Traffic Inspectorate would implement special traffic control measures to manage the flow of traffic.
However, according to some motorists who were driving back to Gauteng following the long weekend, metro police and SA Police Service presence on the road contributed to many motorists not breaking the law or simply taking advantage.
“I’m happy the traffic is moving and this strategy to have police on the road has worked out this time, because traffic is moving swiftly,” said motorist David Leballo.
