South Africa’s speed limits and road deaths vs the world

South Africa’s speed limits are relatively high compared to other countries, and road deaths are excessive in proportion to its population.

This is according to a MyBroadband analysis which compared South Africa’s speed limits and road fatality statistics to six other nations to understand how possible changes to speed limits could reduce traffic-related deaths in the country.

The Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) recently proposed a reduction to the country’s speed limits to reduce fatal road accidents.

We compared South Africa’s speed limits and road deaths to the UK, US, Germany, New Zealand, Japan, and Nigeria.

The US and Germany were the only countries with higher motorway speed limits than South Africa. New Zealand’s main road speed limits are higher than South Africa’s as they are equal to the speed limits on its motorways.

Speed limits in the US are based on jurisdiction, like many of its laws, meaning they can vary by state. For instance, the motorway limit in Texas ranges from 121 km/h to 137 km/h, depending on the route.

At the same time, motorists in Vermont have to adhere to a 105 km/h speed limit on motorways.

Germany’s speed limit in built-up and residential areas is 50 km/h — which is less than South Africa’s. However, the German motorway system, the autobahn, is famous for having no federally mandated speed limits.

Despite its higher speed limits on motorways, Germany’s traffic-related deaths were significantly less than South Africa’s in 2018, 2019, and 2020.

The nations with the lowest speed limits are Nigeria and Japan. Both countries limit speeds to 100 km/h on their motorways.

Each country’s national speed limits and road fatalities are summarised in the table below.

When looking at traffic-related fatalities as a percentage of the country’s population, South Africa is the worst of the countries compared.

During 2018, 2019, and 2020, the number of traffic-related deaths in South Africa worked out to 0.02% of the population each year on average. Comparatively, the second-worst was the US, with 0.011%.

The most closely-related country to South Africa, in terms of population size, is the UK. However, the UK’s road fatalities as a percentage of its population averaged 0.0036% over the three years.

Notably, in the only other African country compared, Nigeria, road fatalities made up only 0.0026% and 0.0027% of its population in 2018 and 2019 — the lowest of all nations in the comparison over the period.

The RTMC proposed several interventions in February 2022, including reducing South Africa’s speed limits by 10 km/h as per the UN roads council’s recommendations.

If implemented, the 60 km/h residential speed limit would drop to 50 km/h, and its 120 km/h limits would be reduced to 110 km/h.

RTMC chief communications officer Simon Zwane said the proposed speed limit adjustments are in line with recommendations made by the United Nations to reduce speed by 10km/h to bring down the number of fatalities.

Zwane explained that this decision was binding for South Africa as a member of the UN’s roads council, and the government is favouring the lower speed limits.

The population and road fatalities for each country are summarised below. The table also includes fatal accidents as a percentage of the population for each nation.

Now read: South Africa’s petrol price could hit R40 per litre