Transport Minister Dipuo Peters said on Tuesday that fatalities on the country’s roads during the festive season increased by 220 – or 11% — from 1535 in 2014/15 to 1755 for 2015/16.

This was revealed at a media briefing in Pretoria.

Peters had‚ in the lead-up to the holiday period‚ “made a plea to all road users in the country to conduct themselves in a responsible manner and play a role in reducing the carnage on our roads”.

This appeared not to have been heeded as between December 1 and January 11 1387 fatal crashes occurred‚ representing an 11% increase compared to 2014’s 1253 crashes.

Some statistics tweeted from the briefing:

- Most crashes (51.4%) occured between 2pm and 11pm;

- 22.2% of crashes were recorded on Saturdays‚ 18.8% on Fridays‚ while Sunday accounted for 16.9%;

- 81.4% of fatalities were blacks‚ “while the remainder varies between coloured‚ whites‚ asians‚ foreigners”;

 - 74.4% of the total fatalities were male‚ 25.2% female and “the gender of 0.4% of people in crashes could not be determined because they were burned beyond recognition”;

- The majority of people who died were passengers — 38.3%‚ followed by pedestrians at 34.9%; drivers accounted for 23.9% and cyclists 2.8%;

 - Small motor vehicles accounted for 47.9% of total crashes; light vehicles 22.7%‚ minibuses/combis 10.1% and trucks 4.8%; and

 - 10.4% of pedestrians deaths were children aged 0 to 4.