Road Fatality Interventions
Submitting University
University of Cape Town
Summary of the impact:
Road fatalities were labelled a pandemic as early as 1973 (British Medical Journal, 1973). Over the past two decades, South Africa has been quoted as the country with the most road fatalities per 100 000 population, globally. Road crashes cost the South African economy over R188 billion in 2021 (RTMC, 2022). This value is adjusted by the annual Consumer Price Index (CPI) with relevant annual crash and fatality rates, from the estimated R142.9 billion in 2015 (Labuschagne et al., 2017). The differences per province are substantial.
The Centre for Transport Studies has collaborated with the Western Cape Government to combat the unacceptable high road fatality burden on the provincial roads. The collaboration with the Western Cape started in 2008, under the Safely Home banner, launched by the then Minister, Robin Carlisle. The Western Cape has been tracking its road fatalities since. As addressing road fatalities is an ongoing activity, the collaboration with the Western Cape Government (WCG) has continued. The Centre of Transport Studies, for example, developed
