Holiday death toll reaches 86

The 2014 festive season road accident death toll has now reached 86 following the death of five more people on Sunday the 28th of December.

The figure translates to a 6 percent increase in the number of people killed on the roads up from 81 deaths recorded during the same period last year.

Five more people died in road accidents on Sunday the 28th of December, bringing the holiday death toll to 86.

There was also a 20 percent increase in the total number of accidents with 1054 recorded up from the 880 recorded in 2013.

Two people died in Harare while Bulawayo, Manicaland and Matabeleland South provinces recorded a death each.

During the same period in 2013, 81 people had been killed in road accidents.

The number of people injured has also gone up by 30 percent, as 600 people have so far been injured up from last year’s 461.

There was however a slight reduction in the number of accidents that occurred on the 28th of December 2014, with 42 accidents recorded down from 58 on the same day in 2013.

The number of injured people on the same day also went down by 65 percent from 31 to 11.

Police have attributed this to massive deployment in reaction to the soaring death toll.

86 vehicles have been impounded for defects and being unroadworthy while 6790 tickets have been issued for various traffic offences.