By Leanne Raymond

The death toll on South Africa's roads since December 1 has hit 965 - slightly down on last year - but the accident cost to the country since the beginning of the year is a staggering R30-billion or more.

Last year, there were 12 200 deaths on the country's roads, at a cost of R38-billion to the economy, Department of Transport spokesperson Collen Msibi said on Wednesday.

"We haven't done calculations for this year yet and from the figures it looks as if the number of fatalities may be slightly fewer, but road accidents and fatalities will still cost billions, probably around R30billion."

We could be using this money for social services

Calculating the cost took into account medical expenses, claims to the road accident fund and insurance claims, said Msibi.

"We could be using this money for social services.

"Although the numbers are down, the cost is in the billions - that is why we take safety on the roads so seriously."

Msibi said that of the people who died on the roads over the festive season, 411 were pedestrians, 235 drivers and 319 passengers. Also, 88 were children younger than 14. Although the number of deaths was "shocking", it was down from the 1 140 over the same period last year, Msibi said.

This time last year 295 drivers, 449 pedestrians and 396 passengers died during the festive season, which begins on December 1.

The Western Cape has the fifth-highest death toll, with 104 people killed on its roads this month.

The province with the highest number of deaths, 183, is KwaZulu-Natal, followed by Gauteng with 162, the Eastern Cape 115, and Mpumalanga 110.

In the rest of the country, Limpopo has had 91 deaths, North West 87, Free State 79, and the Northern Cape 34.

Msibi said the cause of most of the large accidents, where 10 or more people died, was speed.

"I don't want to generalise and we will still do a full analysis, but it looks as though speed, (followed by) fatigue, are the main contributing factors."

According to Makhaya Mani, spokesperson for the MEC for Community Safety, Leonard Ramatlakane, the highest speed recorded in the Western Cape this month was 193km/h, which equalled the record clocked in KwaZulu-Natal by a motorist caught on the N3.

At the weekend, the highest recorded speed in the Western Cape was 184 km/h.

Johan Botha, Standard Bank economist, said the cost of road accidents to the economy was "substantial". As trying to calculate the cost of the lives of people killed was complicated, only the direct costs borne by emergency infrastructure and services were taken into account.

Msibi said people must rest when taking long trips. "People should rest for at least 20 minutes every two hours or every 200km."

• This article was originally published on page 5 of Cape Times on December 29, 2005