While the City is still collecting and gathering all stats and data for this past Easter weekend, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith said they’ve seen a decrease in road crashes this year.
Smith stated that 345 crashes were recorded on city roads between Thursday and Saturday this year, a decline from 650 crashes that were recorded in 2021.
He said impatience and the behaviour of drivers played a major contributing factor, with the category of drivers not maintaining proper following distance being the biggest contributing factor, with 174 incidents. He added that alcohol and cellphone distractions were also major contributors to these incidents.
“When analysing the various time slots, an increase is shown starting from 16h00 up until 01h00. In 2021 Easter Weekend fatalities for the City of Cape Town, three were recorded on the Thursday, five on Friday, and 11 on Saturday.
He said the City’s easter weekend traffic strategy seemed to be paying off with one fatality having been picked up by the CCTV surveillance section and the 107 Public Emergency Communication Centre for Thursday compared to three for the previous year.
The City had stretched even further in its goal to make routes as safe as possible for all road users by displaying all alerts in English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa, to their expanded CCTC coverage, and their Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) license plate tracking and their Random Breath Testing unit.
“Our Freeway Management System situated in Goodwood and in partnership with Western Cape government and SANRAL, monitors major routes across the province, with SANRAL overseeing the N1, N2, and both mountain passes. The province handles other major routes leading out of Cape Town, with the City overseeing the four major routes leading into the City centre,” he said.
He went on to say that while they await the remainder of various data streams to come in and be translated into final reports, it already appears that their previous investment in smart technology and data-led enforcement has saved countless lives.“Increased enforcement will continue throughout the day as motorists return back to Cape Town,” he said.
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