Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Exceptionally high levels of road accidents costs the South African economy more than R300-billion each year, according to The International Transport Forum's (ITF) Road Safety Annual Reportan international report for 2013.
South Africa rated the worst, out of 36 others, when it came to the number of road fatalities.
South Africa's road fatalities per 100 000 inhabitants was at 27.6 deaths in 2011.
Other developing countries included in the report did not exceed South Africa's road death toll. Both Argentina and Colombia reached around 12, while Malaysia came off second worst with 23.8
Developed countries such as North America rated 10.4 and Australia with 5.6.
The report detiails the economic cost to be R307-billion each year - said to put additional strain on Transnet as it puts its budget into an ambitious seven-year infrastructure build programme.
South Africa joined the forum's international traffic safety data and analysis group (Irtad) in 2012 as an observer and is one of just a handful of developing countries included in the latest road safety report.
The data was provided by the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
Stephen Perkins, head of research at the ITF, said the report was based on police data from each country but that integration between this and hospital records was still necessary to derive the real cost.
The Netherlands and Sweden have in fact integrated this data resulting in the former – which usually ranks second best – slide down to fifth in the latest report. De la Beaumelle said the country chose to do this to highlight the importance of integrating the data, and counting those who may be missing from police records.
Provisional data for 2012 showed fatalities from crashes had decreased slightly to 12 200, as opposed to the 14 000 seen in 2011.
"Pedestrians are particularly at risk, and represent more than 35% of all reported fatalities," the report said.
The research noted that the motorised vehicle fleet in South Africa had doubled in the last 20 years and that between 1990 and 2011 the number of road fatalities increased by 25.
South Africa rated the worst, out of 36 others, when it came to the number of road fatalities.
South Africa's road fatalities per 100 000 inhabitants was at 27.6 deaths in 2011.
Other developing countries included in the report did not exceed South Africa's road death toll. Both Argentina and Colombia reached around 12, while Malaysia came off second worst with 23.8
Developed countries such as North America rated 10.4 and Australia with 5.6.
The report detiails the economic cost to be R307-billion each year - said to put additional strain on Transnet as it puts its budget into an ambitious seven-year infrastructure build programme.
South Africa joined the forum's international traffic safety data and analysis group (Irtad) in 2012 as an observer and is one of just a handful of developing countries included in the latest road safety report.
The data was provided by the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
Stephen Perkins, head of research at the ITF, said the report was based on police data from each country but that integration between this and hospital records was still necessary to derive the real cost.
The Netherlands and Sweden have in fact integrated this data resulting in the former – which usually ranks second best – slide down to fifth in the latest report. De la Beaumelle said the country chose to do this to highlight the importance of integrating the data, and counting those who may be missing from police records.
Provisional data for 2012 showed fatalities from crashes had decreased slightly to 12 200, as opposed to the 14 000 seen in 2011.
"Pedestrians are particularly at risk, and represent more than 35% of all reported fatalities," the report said.
The research noted that the motorised vehicle fleet in South Africa had doubled in the last 20 years and that between 1990 and 2011 the number of road fatalities increased by 25.
