Transport Minister Creecy Calls For Behaviour Change To Reduce Road Crashes, Save Lives 

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Cape Town – With heavy traffic volumes expected from this weekend, leading to Christmas and New Year’s Day, Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has called for behavioural change to reduce road crashes and save lives.

Delivering her mid-term review of the 2025 Festive Season Road Safety Campaign on Friday, 19 December 2025, Minister Creecy said the core message of the 365 Days of Road Safety commitment was to save lives.

“Our goal is to prevent crashes and save lives — not just for this campaign period, but as part of a sustained national commitment.

“We are seeing a decrease in the number of fatalities and remain positive about our current efforts.“

She said there was a decrease in the number of deaths from road crashes this year.

“At this stage of the 2025 festive season, preliminary data show that early road fatalities have declined compared to the same period last year,” the minister said.

“Preliminary reports indicate a 20.9% reduction in fatal crashes and 20.8% reduction in fatalities in the middle of December (December 1-16) following intensified law enforcement, road safety education, and public messaging.

“However, this early encouraging trend masks the ongoing reality of road trauma across the country.”

Minister Creecy said preliminary reporting confirms that holiday crashes continue to claim lives.

“In the Western Cape alone, 66 people were killed in 55 crashes in the first half of December,” she lamented.

“While we have already conducted 1328 education and awareness programmes and have seen some success, we have a long way still ahead of us.”

While Gauteng was able to bring down crashes by 12%, it remains the highest contributor to the death toll.

• Gauteng had 105 fatalities in 95 crashes,
• KwaZulu-Natal – 88 fatalities in 85 crashes.
• Eastern Cape – 52 fatalities in 45 crashes,
• Mpumalanga – 69  fatalities in 50  crashes,
• North West – 34 fatalities in 28 crashes,
• Limpopo – 40 fatalities in 34 crashes and
• Northern Cape – 31 fatalities in 20 crashes

Minister Creecy said the Free State, with a 67.2% decrease in fatalities, was the best-performing province.

She said the province managed to bring major crashes from 40 last year to 19 this year, while road deaths were brought down from 61 to 20.

Countrywide, the number of fatal crashes last year at this time was 545 compared to the 431 we have seen this year.

The fatal crashes took 638 lives last year, this time compared to 505 persons this year.

“This means we have saved 113 lives through law enforcement, awareness, and education, and should also mention the person-to-person advice on safer road use, that may have had its own share of success on this project,” Minister Creecy said.

“The average fatalities per day is 32, which is the lowest in five years.“

She said the top four types of crashes that contributed to the high number of fatalities include pedestrians being run over, single-vehicle overturned, and head-on collisions.

Pedestrians continue to represent a disproportionately large share of the road deaths.

Pedestrians contributed 44% of the fatalities, passengers 28%, drivers 26%, and cyclists 2%.

“These preliminary figures remind us that danger remains ever-present, and the peak travel days of Christmas and New Year are still ahead,”’ the minister said.

“Heavy traffic volumes are expected on the roads this weekend, leading to Christmas and New Year’s Day.”

She stated that traffic volumes and congestion will be experienced again in the first weekend of January, as many holiday makers will be making their way back to the cities for the re-opening of schools and return to work.

“Despite strong enforcement, two provinces recorded increases in fatalities year-on-year, notably Mpumalanga and Northern Cape, illustrating that behavioural risk remains stubbornly high,” Minister Creecy said.

The data at mid-season indicates that enforcement is having an impact on incident rates, but fatal crashes are still occurring at unacceptable levels.

“Alcohol misuse, speeding, fatigue, and unsafe pedestrian behaviour remain the dominant risk factors,” she said.

“Heavy rainfalls and thunderstorms in the period under review also had a devastating impact on our campaign.

“These patterns emphasise that law enforcement and infrastructure improvements alone are not enough.

“They must be paired with sustained behavioural change — the core message of our 365 Days of Road Safety commitment.”

Traffic authorities have stopped 13.7 more vehicles this year than last year.

She said government — through the Road Traffic Management Corporation, SA Police Service, Traffic Police, and provincial partners — has undertaken 639 roadblocks in which 714 371 vehicles were stopped and checked.

A total of 168 427 traffic fines were issued while 3 695 unroadworthy vehicles were discontinued, and 2 552 public transport vehicles were impounded for violation of operator permits.

Arrests and offences 3 Notably, 2 364 drivers were arrested for drunken driving, 236 for driving at excessive speeds, 178 for reckless and negligent driving, while 53 pedestrians were arrested for jaywalking on freeways, and 26 motorists were arrested for attempting to bribe traffic officers.

“It can be noted that the number of arrests has increased by 16.2% compared to last year due to even more intensive law enforcement,” the minister said.

“We increased drunken driving arrests by 97.8% this year compared to last year.”

She said pedestrians remain a priority concern over this period.

“We have noticed fewer transgressions from this category and have seen a 57.9% decrease in pedestrian arrests,” Minister Creecy said.

“We have also noticed a decrease in the number of drivers arrested for speeding, lowered by 7.8%, which could be attributed to greater law enforcement visibility.”

The highest speed was recorded in Gauteng when a female driver was caught driving 193 kilometres an hour in a 120-kilometre zone.

An Eastern Cape man was arrested after recording a breath alcohol content of 2.38milligrams per 1000 millilitres.

The minister said thiswas 10 times above the country’s legal breath alcohol limit of 0.24 milligrams of alcohol per 1000 millilitres of breath.

She said the RTMC has ensured targeted deployment of the National Traffic Police in high-risk provinces and corridors, informed by historical data and real-time monitoring.

“We will, in the coming days, maintain 24-hour high visibility patrols on highway and secondary routes,” the minister said.

“We will undertake alcohol operations every day of the festive season with high intensity over the weekend, and we will patrol areas of pedestrian density to improve compliance with road regulations.”

The following remain critical concerns:

• Alcohol-related crashes

• Excessive speed and reckless driving

• Driver fatigue from long journeys

• Pedestrian deaths, particularly in peri-urban and rural contexts

The persistence of these risky behaviours underlines a simple truth: every road death is preventable.

Call to Action to all road users:

• Never drink and drive.

• Obey speed limits, traffic laws, and stop for pedestrians.

• Ensure your vehicle is roadworthy.

• Rest sufficiently before long trips.

• Wear seatbelts and ensure children are properly restrained.

• If you are a passenger, challenge unsafe driving.

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