And this is why we wear seat belts.

South Africa’s road death toll for 2014 is astronomically high. As of September 9th (today) it is sitting at a whopping 11 357.

That’s 11 357 people that have DIED. This figure doesn’t include the people who have been left paralysed (a further 6 292) and others who have been injured (another 103 185).

So far this year, South African roads have seen some 689 516 accidents. At this rate, the death toll will just keep rising.

“We could even have as many as 50 000 deaths on our roads a year.”

Howard Dembovsky, the founder of Justice Project of South Africa, said the Road Traffic Management Corporation data was not correct as it relied on the SAPS to follow up on culpable homicides to get proper figures. Also, in an original move, the SAPS went and lost a few years of statistics after failing to back up the information. Which means stats could be even higher.

Don’t drink and drive. Wear your seat belt. Drive a bit slower and look at the scenery. Listen to that extra song on your new summer playlist.

Check out TimesLive.