Marginal increase in festive road fatalities
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Thursday January 12, 2017 16:36
The festive season was recorded as starting on December 19, 2016 and ending on January 3, 2017. Police spokesperson, senior superintendent Dipheko Motube said the 31 people died from 25 fatal road crashes compared to 28 deaths from 22 accidents in the previous festive period.
“The 2015-2016 festive season started on December 18, 2015 to January 4, 2016, and you would realise that the previous festive period started earlier. Thus, there has been an increase this year even though the 2015-2016 festive season was longer,” Motube said.
The police also revealed that of the 31 people who perished, eight were drivers, 14 passengers, eight were pedestrians while another was a cyclist. He further revealed that of the 25 fatal crashes, four happened along the A1 highway.
“Seven people lost their lives from the four fatal accidents,” he said.
Motube said the other fatal accidents happened in different areas across the country, but mostly around the Greater Gaborone area. Motube indicated that the current statistics are preliminary as some victims of the accidents that happened during the festive season period are still hospitalised. On the reasons behind the accidents, Motube said the most common causes were driver error, environment and road condition, careless driving, drivers losing control of vehicles, misjudgement and over-speeding.
“The issue of road accidents should be taken seriously. At some point accidents were the second biggest killer after HIV/AIDS in the country,” he said.