Festive season - 34 accidents recorded but no fatalities |05 January 2018

Compared to year 2016 where two young girls lost their lives in a fatal accident at Glacis for the festive season, last year’s festive period recorded no fatalities.

However year 2017 recorded a higher number of accidents – 34 ‒ compared to the previous year – 17.

The police believe that the absence of fatalities last year is due to their campaign which started from December 8, 2017 and will go on until Monday January 8, 2018.

The police said their massive campaign such as road blocks and spot checks may have contributed significantly towards not having any fatal accident for last year’s festive season.

Even though the police were not able to use their breathalyser to test the level of alcohol among drivers, that did not stop them from undertaking a high-quality job and preventing fatal accidents from happening.

According to police spokesperson Jean Toussaint, during the festive season the police have worked tirelessly to prevent any fatal accident from happening.

Overall Mr Toussaint said the police are satisfied with the way the citizens collaborated with them during the festive season.

“We are calling on each and every road user to exercise more responsibility and caution while on the road so as to help reduce both the number of fatalities and accidents in general. As for the street party, no measure of aggression was reported, only a few fights that we were able to deal with,” he said.

According to Assistant Superintendent Antoine Desnousse, who is in charge of the traffic section of the police, there are different factors which could have contributed to the increase in the number of accidents last year compared to the previous year’s festive season such as increase in the number of motor vehicles on the roads, irresponsibility on the part of both drivers and pedestrians, negligence, driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, among many others.

Meanwhile Mr Toussaint also noted that during the festive period a supermarket was robbed at Docklands, where the robbers took electronic items worth R100,000, in addition to a case of robbery with violence at a shop on January 1, 2018.

Mr Toussaint said two suspects have been arrested, with a third one still at large.