Poor levels of road safety for South Africa’s motorcycle riders

South Africa suffered poor safety levels for motorcyclists during 2018, with a 9% increase in fatalities compared to 2017. During 2018 there were 183 fatalities amongst motorcycle drivers and passengers in South Africa, compared to 166 in 2017. Meanwhile there were 508 powered two wheeler riders seriously injured in 2018, compared with 521 the previous year. Of those killed or seriously injured in crashes, 651 were male and 58 were female in 2018, compared with 631 males and 56 females killed or seriously i
January 7, 2019 Read time: 1 min

South Africa suffered poor safety levels for motorcyclists during 2018, with a 9% increase in fatalities compared to 2017. During 2018 there were 183 fatalities amongst motorcycle drivers and passengers in South Africa, compared to 166 in 2017. Meanwhile there were 508 powered two wheeler riders seriously injured in 2018, compared with 521 the previous year. Of those killed or seriously injured in crashes, 651 were male and 58 were female in 2018, compared with 631 males and 56 females killed or seriously injured during 2017. Of those killed or seriously injured, 25% were aged 30-39. There were around 14 serious motorcycle crashes involving a fatality or a serious injury/week on average during 2018, with March featuring the highest rate at 87, although September had the highest fatality rate with 26 deaths. Although motorcycles account for just 2.1% of the registered vehicles in South Africa, they feature a disproportionately high level of serious crashes.

Related Content

  • Concern over seat belt use in Europe
    November 1, 2012
    Concern has been expressed over recidivist motorists in Europe who continue to flout seatbelt laws, despite strong evidence that they risk serious injury or death. According to recent police safety data, results from a recent pan-European seatbelt control operation show that nearly 100,000 drivers and passengers were detected not wearing seatbelts. A total of 25 countries took part in the operation, which was co-ordinated by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL). Of the final total of 97,489 detectio
    Read More
  • UK road deaths increasing for 2016
    November 3, 2016
    Worrying figures have been revealed regarding the UK’s road casualty rate for the last 12 months year ending on June 2016. There were 1,800 reported road fatalities during this period, a 2% increase from the 1,770 recorded for the previous year. However, this increase may come from a combination of factors that have come about by chance, rather than any specific change. The killed or seriously injured casualties (KSIs) increased by 3% to 24,620 compared with the year ending June 2015. This change is s
    Read More
  • Road safety improvement for France
    February 14, 2022
    France is benefiting from a road safety improvement.
    Read More
  • Belgium’s road safety is improving
    June 6, 2017
    Improvements are being seen in Belgium’s road safety according to the latest official data.
    Read More

Highlighted Content