24 September 2007
The Department of Transport stated in a recent reply to a parliamentary question that in the period 1 August 2006 to 31 July 2007, 182 fatal minibus accidents occurred on South African roads, killing 215 people.
The Democratic Alliance says that the department could not furnish the number of crashes that did not lead to fatalities, nor the number of people injured in taxi accidents.
“By far the greatest number of the fatal accidents, 49, occurred in Limpopo Province, with KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng experiencing 39 and 32 accidents respectively,“ says DA spokesperson on Transport, Stuart Farrow.
However the DA undertook a casual study of the Independent Online website to establish what the rough number of people injured in taxi accidents was.
“By going through media reports of minibus taxi accidents, during the same period as that in the Department of Transport’s reply, we were able to acquire a rough estimate of the extent of the carnage on our roads,” says Farrow.
Farrow adds that they discovered that around 1100 people were reported injured in minibus taxis over the time frame as the above mentioned.
“The Department of Transport is yet to provide a solution to this crisis, apart from the practically insolvent Road Accident Fund, which only treats the symptoms of road accidents, not the causes,” says Farrow.
Farrow adds that it is time that action is taken to ensure that people can go about their lives without wondering if the next taxi ride will be their last.
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