The data at mid-season tell us that enforcement is having an impact on incident rates, but fatal crashes are still occurring at unacceptable levels
Alcohol misuse, speeding, fatigue, and unsafe pedestrian behaviour remain the dominant risk factors. Heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms in the period under review also had a devastating impact on our campaign.
These patterns emphasise that law enforcement and infrastructure improvements alone are not enough. They must be paired with sustained behavioural change — the core message of our 365 Days of Road Safety commitment
Operational Response to Date
We have stopped 13.7 more vehicles this year than last year and this put a larger group of road users in trouble.
Government — through the RTMC, SAPS, Traffic Police, and provincial partners — has undertaken: 639 roadblocks in which 714 371 vehicles were stopped and checked
A total of 168 427 traffic fines were issued while 3 695 unroadworthy vehicles were discontinued, and 2 552 public transport vehicles were impounded for violation of operator permits
Arrests and offences
Notably, 2 364 drivers were arrested for drunken driving, 236 for driving at excessive speeds, 178 for reckless and negligent driving while fifty-three (53) pedestrians were arrested for jaywalking on freeways and twenty (26) motorists were arrested for attempting to bribe traffic officers.
It can be noted that the number of arrests has increased by 16.2% compared to last year due to even more intensive law enforcement
We increased drunken driving arrests by 97.8% this year compared to last year
Pedestrians remain our priority concern over this period and we have noticed fewer transgressions from this category and have seen a 57.9% decrease in pedestrian arrests
We have also noticed a decrease in the number of drivers arrested for speeding, lowered by 7.8%, which could be attributed to greater law enforcement visibility
The highest speed was recorded in Gauteng when a female driver was caught driving 193 kilometres an hour in a 120-kilometre zone. An Eastern Cape man was arrested after recording a breath alcohol content of 2.38milligrams per 1000 millilitres. This is ten times above the country’s legal breath alcohol limit of 0.24 milligrams of alcohol per 1000 millilitres breath
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