Sono stati 1050 i morti sulle strade sudafricane durante lo scorso mese di dicembre. Il che significa che vi è stato un marcato peggioramento nei confronti dell’anno precedente. Nel 2008, infatti, i morti in incidenti stradali erano stati 908. Le 142 vittime in più di quest’anno rappresentano un aumento del 16 per cento. E tutto questo nonostante le 285.000 multe per eccesso di velocità contestate  in tutto il paese.

Le cifre finora pubblicate sono ufficiose e secondo fonti governative non rispecchiano la verità dei fatti. Le statistiche ufficiali saranno diffuse dal ministro competente verso le fine del mese.

Nel periodo in esame sono stati 3.487 gli automobilisti arrestati per guida in stato di ubriachezza. Fra loro anche un poliziotto fuori servizio e un autista di autobus partito da Città del Capo per Johannesburg con 70 passeggeri a bordo. Quando lo hanno fermato, dopo poco più di 100 chilometri, aveva un tasso alcolico nel sangue dieci volte più alto del normale. I passeggeri non si erano accorti di nulla. Il poliziotto, con la famiglia a bordo, ha tentato di sfuggire al controllo, ma la sua auto si è schiantata contro una vettura parcheggiata, dopo aver attraversato tre incroci con il semaforo rosso. Il suo livello alcolico era il triplo del consentito.

Road fatality stats fixed

Managing director of driving.co.za, Rob Handfield-Jones, said the department of transport's claim that the December 2009 road death toll was lower than that of December 2008 was invalid and based on contradictory statistics.

"The department is currently claiming the death toll for December 2008 to be 1348; it was actually 908. The death toll of 1050 for December 2009 is thus not a reduction, but an increase of almost 16 percent," he said in a statement.

He said December 2009 claimed 142 more lives when compared to the same month in 2008, despite around 285,000 speeding tickets being issued.

"Speed control has once again been shown to be ineffective at reducing road deaths."

Handfield-Jones called for the introduction of a new driving licence system and a Professional Driving Permit which included a driving skills test, saying the current system produced poor drivers.

"Across the world, people only drive as badly as their governments permit them to," he said.

The parliamentary portfolio committee on transport should investigate how the department of transport came to use contradictory data in road safety comparisons and whether the statistics were fixed, he said.

Department spokesman Logan Maistry maintained that there was a decrease in a number of road fatalities in December 2009 when compared with the same time in 2008.

He said statistics released to media were not final and that Minister of Transport Sbu Ndebele would release final statistics later in this month.

Arguing about statistics, he said, was not the department's main concern.

"Road deaths are more than mere statistics, it's people's lives.

"We have no reason to fiddle with figures, our aim as government is to save lives. For us one road death, is one too many".

Bus driver, cop arrested for drunk driving - By Lauren Cohen

An off-duty Johannesburg metro police officer was arrested after he was spotted slumped over the steering wheel of his car at a green traffic light.

Metro police Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said the driver awoke and sped from the approaching officers, driving through several red lights.

"He drove like crazy to get away from them," Minnaar said.

The car chase ended with the metro policeman crashing his private car into a stationary vehicle in Rosettenville, south of the city. His blood-alcohol level was allegedly three times over the legal limit.

And in Western Cape the driver of an SA Roadlink bus was arrested on the N1, in Worcester, late on Saturday night.

The 45-year-old was stopped by officials after he skipped a stop street. His blood-alcohol level was allegedly 10 times above the legal limit.

The 70 Johannesburg-bound passengers on the bus were shocked to be told that they had been driven by a drunken driver, said police spokesman Captain Mzwandile Moloi.

Transport Minister Sbu Ndebele has praised the crackdown on wayward motorists this festive season in which 3487 drunk drivers, and 244 reckless and negligent drivers, were arrested and 285000 motorists were fined for speeding.

The transport minister's spokesman, Logan Maistry, said no one, "be it a public transport driver or a metro police officer, is above the law when it comes to ensuring safety on our roads".

Western Cape community safety MEC Lennit Max and transport MEC Robin Carlisle will meet this morning to discuss "removing SA Roadlink from Western Cape roads", Max said.

"[The company's record] is totally unacceptable and we need [a punishment] much more [severe] than fines."

In 2008, the bus operator was involved in a legal wrangle with then KwaZulu-Natal transport MEC Bheki Cele, who vowed to ban Roadlink buses from entering the province following an accident in which one of them was involved. The case was withdrawn.

Max said SA Roadlink chief executive Allan Reddy had complained last month that his company was being treated unfairly.

"I invited him to meet me to discuss this, as we have had valid reasons for impounding their vehicles, but have heard nothing from him as yet," Max said.

Two SA Roadlink buses were impounded on New Year's Day.

Western Cape provincial traffic spokesman Xenophone Wentzel said the first SA Roadlink bus to be stopped was on a road near George.

"The bus was unroadworthy because of oil leaks and a faulty suspension. The driver's door could not open and the headlights were not working," he said.

The stranded passengers were loaded onto a second coach - which was pulled off the road soon after by traffic police in Knysna. It was impounded after a shock absorber was found to be broken in half and tied together with string.

In September, SA Roadlink expanded its fleet to more than 50 buses and advertised extensively around the country that its new top-of-the-range fleet was built to comply with stringent European and SABS standards.

A few weeks later, the bus operator boasted that its vehicles would be the safest on the roads and that it was testing a closed-circuit TV system that would help it to uncover bad driving and make its response to accidents easier.