National
Easter Weekend road death toll to be released─── 10:26 Fri, 21 Apr 2017
Pretoria – Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi is expected to release the preliminary Easter weekend road death toll on Friday.
A total of 156 people were killed on South Africa’s roads during the 2016 Easter weekend, compared to 287 for the same period in 2015.
Over 18 000 traffic officers were deployed countrywide for the 2017 Easter season.
The Department of Transport on Sunday said it expected more than 700 000 vehicles to be bound for Gauteng on Monday.
"The biggest contributing factor to road crashes is expected to be motorists wanting to cover a long distance in the shortest possible time,” the department said in a statement.
The Road Traffic Management Corporation said speeding and overloading were the main offences during the Easter holidays. Driving unroadworthy vehicles contributed to accidents and deaths, it said.
