FATALITIES ON ROADS

Southland Times, Issue 23152, 19 March 1937, Page 8

FATALITIES ON ROADS

HIGHEST RATE IN WORLD SOUTH AFRICA’S TRAGIC TOLL JOHANNESBURG, February 18. On the roads of the Union of South Africa last year 1009 people were killed and 14,225 were injured in 38,655 accidents. These figures in a preliminary estimate of the injury and death roll for 1936 prove the year to be the blackest on record for road accidents in the country, and give the Union the highest death and injury rate in the world. The most disturbing feature of the statistics, said an official of the Safety First Association of South Africa, was the alarming increase in the number of road accidents and deaths from such accidents during the year. These had shown a rise of more than 23 per cent over the figures for 1935 in accidents, 12J per cent in persons injured, and llj per cent in deaths, which brought the highway death rate for the nine principal cities of the Union to a little over 33 per 100,000 people. This was more than double the highway death rate of either New York or London. The situation is attributed to an increase in the number of careless and drunken drivers using the roads, and to the presence of ever-increasing numbers of “road hogs,” especially among the younger generation of drivers, many of whom, it is said, imagine the roads to be so many public racing tracks, and who have too little regard for the safety of their own passengers or the rights of other users of the road.

It is felt that the time has come when all provincial and municipal authorities, the police and safety first organizations should come together to evolve some improved method of dealing with the menace of the roads, and reduce the number of accidents. The co-operation of the police, especially, it is said, would help to facilitate that vigilance on the roads which would contribute to increased safety.