Citizen Online
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
By Kim Helfrich
JOHANNESBURG - Transport Minister Jeff Radebe has again pointed out the unacceptably high cost of road deaths to the economy.
Speaking in Mafikeng to mark UN World Remembrance Day with special emphasis on people killed in road accidents worldwide, he said that if South Africans did not co-operate to stem this "tide of death", the 6% growth target for the national economy would not be met.
More than 13 000 people die on South African roads annually at an estimated cost of about R43 billion.
Other statistics given by him in support of the need to encourage a culture of obedience to traffic laws included the fact that 36 people die on the country's roads daily.
Fifteen of these are pedestrians and three die as a result of taxi-related accidents.
Fatalities apart, more than 7 000 people are maimed and/or crippled by accidents annually