AfintaPart donates R200,000 in car seats
Releasing road death statistics in January 2014, shortly after the high-season festive period, Transport Minister, Dipuo Peters reported that 1376 people were killed over the festive season alone, twice as high as developed countries such as North America and Australia.
Critical need for car seats
"What many people don't realise is that the economic cost of road fatalities over an extended period is far more of a burden than we care to think," says Wayne Lodder, director of AfintaPart. With the figure being an estimated R307 billion each year, this is the same if not marginally more than what Transnet has budgeted for its seven-year infrastructure development programme. Resultant life-long disabilities and the appropriate need for medical care after road accidents are factors that many do not realise must be accounted for.
Roads are purported to be the single biggest killer of young people over the age of 10 and locally three children under the age of 15 die each day on our roads. There is a critical need for booster car seats to be made available wherever possible. They have been scientifically proven to reduce the need for hospitalisation by 60%, by holding children in position during a crash, which would otherwise see a passenger being thrown into the instrument panel, windscreen or other parts of a car.
"We are pleased to have played a role in making road trips safer, especially for children," concludes Lodder.