Passenger ban on bakkies?
2003-01-06 17:57
Johannesburg - Bakkies contributed to 21% - or 233 - of the more than 1 236 road deaths recorded between December 1 and January 4.
This could lead to a review of using bakkies as passenger transport, says department of transport official Ntau Letebele.
He blamed unroadworthy trucks, buses and taxis for the high fatality rate - 25% up from the 2001 figures.
But, he said, bakkies were considered to be causing the worst accidents as they were not designed to carry people on the back, even if fitted with a canopy.
This view was evidenced by the accident between a bakkie and a sedan on the N2 near Mossel Bay in the Western Cape on New Year's Day that claimed 11 lives. Nine of the victims were travelling on the bakkie, Letebele said.
The transport department, in conjunction with the South African Bureau of Standards, will soon meet to reassess the safety certification of bakkies carrying passengers in the back, he said.
Sedans
Accidents involving sedans claimed 428 lives.
Many victims were killed during collisions between bakkies and sedan cars.
Arrive Alive Campaign spokesperson Cilly Carous said although sedans carried fewer people, there were more sedans on the road.
Gauteng
It appeared most of the road death victims were Gautengers who were involved in various accidents in other parts of the country.
Provincial authorities said on Saturday most of the vehicles involved in accidents were registered in Gauteng.
Pedestrians
Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal were characterised by hit and run accidents of pedestrians, with a total of 31 pedestrians killed in urban areas and 46 killed in rural areas of Gauteng. Seventy-two pedestrians were killed in KwaZulu-Natal.
Arrive Alive attributed this to pedestrians crossing roads where and when it was unsafe to do so, especially at night when visibility was low.