Where are the most dangerous roads in the world? A recent study by online driver education resource, Kutobi, has revealed interesting insight on the safest and most dangerous roads around the world and South Africa is considered to be the most dangerous! Take a look!
There’s no doubt about it, South Africa is home to some of the world’s most beautiful driving roads, but sadly, South African roads are also ranked as the most dangerous roads in the world, according to a recent study by Zutobi.
Road safety remains a major challenge in South Africa and statistics from the recent 2024/2025 festive season highlight a myriad of problems that contribute to the country’s dire road safety crisis. Road users, in general, blatantly disobey traffic laws with no regard for human life. The numbers don’t lie and the consequences are tragic.
During the period under review (1 Dec 24 – 20 Jan 25), 1 502 fatalities were recorded from 1 234 crashes, representing a year-on-year fatality increase of 5.3%. Notably, 41% of all fatalities were pedestrians and 87% of all crashes were directly related to human behavior, including hit-and-runs, jay-walking, fatigue, loss of control over vehicles, excessive speed, drunken driving and reckless overtaking, to name a few.
If you live in South Africa, you will know how dangerous our roads are, but how does South Africa stack up against other countries around the world?
Zutobi, an online driver education resource, has conducted a study analysing road safety in numerous countries using key indicators including estimated road traffic death rate, maximum motorway speed limit, seat-belt wearing rate, road deaths attributed to alcohol and Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) limits for drivers to determine the world’s safest and most dangerous countries to drive. The ranking was determined by giving each factor a normalised score out of 10 with an average score calculated across all 5 factors.
Where does South Africa rank? Let’s take a look!
Where are the world’s most dangerous roads for driving?
Surprise, surprise! According to the Zutobi study, for the second consecutive year, South Africa is ranked No.1 as the country with the world’s most dangerous roads!
South Africa’s estimated road traffic death rate is 24.5 deaths per 100 000 of the population and shockingly only 31% of front passengers wear a safety belt! What’s more disturbing is that South Africa has the highest alcohol-related traffic death rate in the world at 57.5 deaths per 100 000 people which is significantly higher than any other country in the study! The national speed limit in South Africa is 120 kph with a 0.05 g/dl legal Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) limit for drivers.
To put the above in perspective, Norway is ranked as the safest country for driving in the world with only 1.5 road traffic deaths per 100 000 of the population. More so, 97.8% of Norwegians buckle up and the country has an alcohol-related road traffic death rate of 13 deaths per 100 000 people. The speed limit in Norway is 110 kph with a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) limit for drivers set at 0.02 g/dl.
Thailand ranks as the second most dangerous country for driving behind South Africa, followed by the United States, Argentina and India rounding out the Top 5 most dangerous countries for driving.
Where are the world’s safest roads for driving?
As mentioned, the safest country for driving is Norway, followed by Iceland, Japan, Estonia and Hungary.
See the full Zutobi study for more details.
It’s clear from the above data that a deep behavioural shift needs to occur in South Africa if a significant improvement in road safety is to be realised.
Cars.co.za encourages all roads users, including pedestrians and motorists, to obey all the rules of the road at all times, exercise patience while travelling, show compassion to fellow drivers and other road users, buckle up, abstain from reckless driving and don’t drink and drive!
