The Johannesburg Attorneys Association on Friday called into question the Easter road death toll announced earlier this week by Transport Minister Jeff Radebe.
It was ”impossible” to calculate real fatality numbers so soon after the fact, said the association’s Michael de Broglio.
”Deaths resulting from serious injuries could not have been included yet,” he said, adding that numbers always increased as some of the victims succumbed to their injuries.
Radebe announced on Thursday that the 197 Easter road traffic deaths this year were 34% down on the 297 in 2008.
He said 13 people died in two major accidents this year, while 45 people died in eight major crashes last year.
However, the attorneys’ association questioned the ”publicity stunt convenience” of the announcement.
”It makes for a great story at the end of every holiday period to compare total fatalities from the same period, the year before, to the quick-win positive-spin that the premature release of the number of fatalities so soon after the fact provides to Radebe,” said De Broglio.
The government had announced declines in road fatalities for several years now, but the reality, in retrospect, showed a ”disingenuous massaging of the facts”.
In his announcement, Radebe said there had been a downward trend in road deaths over the past five years, explaining that: ”Despite the apparent increase in the national death rate between 2004 to 2007, there may still have been an underlying long term downward trend.”
De Broglio said he failed to understand why — if fatalities, motor vehicle accidents and related injuries were down and there should naturally be fewer claims — the Road Accident Fund (RAF) needed legislative changes to reduce what it was paying out.
”If the minister’s figures are correct, there should be a decrease in claims.”
Spin would not solve the long term problems increasingly making road safety a challenge in South Africa, he said.
”Corruption in licensing departments, the failure of the RAF to adequately insure South Africans against third party claims and continued failure by the government to make a real difference in road fatalities spells disaster.
”These days one can connect the dots across South Africa simply by marking the vast number of potholes on any map. It remains unacceptable.” — Sapa