Initial data indicated that 36 fewer people died on South African roads last month than in December 2002, the transport department said on Wednesday.
This represented a decrease of three percent, deputy director-general Sipho Khumalo told reporters in Pretoria.
Since 2000, he said, the road death rate for the month of December had dropped by 25,8% — the equivalent of more than 1 000 saved lives.
The success was despite an average increase of more than six percent in traffic volumes for December 2003, and a nearly three percent rise in the number of vehicles registered in South Africa in the past year.
Khumalo said higher levels of visible policing, a comprehensive public relations campaign and the use of technology to detect repeat offenders all contributed to the reduction in fatalities.
The biggest killers on the road were speeding and drunken driving. About 40% of those who died were pedestrians.
Khumalo dismissed reports that the government was considering reducing the speed limit on urban roads from 60 kilometre per hour to 50km/h.
”There is no official position on that. That is not specifically one of the things we are looking at doing,” he said.
The Beeld newspaper quoted Arrive Alive spokesperson Wendy Watson as saying the national transport department was considering a reduction in the speed limit in a bid to reduce the death toll on South African roads. – Sapa