The number of passengers killed in road crashes over the annual Easter weekend has been decreasing in the last five years‚ the Road Traffic Management Corporation announced on Tuesday.The corporation said passengers killed in accidents made up 39% of the total number killed on South Africa’s roads last year‚ a decrease from the 43% killed in 2010.Drivers killed made up 25%‚ while pedestrians made up 30%‚ figures that have remained at that level in the last five years.“This reflects a positive contribution that public transport operators have made to improving safety on the roads. Last year taxis and busses combined were involved in 12% of fatal road crashes during the Easter period‚” the corporation said in a statement on Tuesday.“By far the majority of vehicles that were involved in fatal crashes were small private motor vehicles (47.4%) and bakkies (13%). These two categories of vehicles contribute more than 50% of all fatal crashes.”But the figures of actual deaths were less comforting‚ showing an increase in overall deaths on Easter weekends.“A total of 333 people died on the roads over Easter period last year as compared to the 229 the previous year. A total of 244 died in 2010.”Alcohol intake remains a major factor in the cause of road accidents. “Information from these operations indicate that speed and alcohol use by drivers remains a big challenge.”The volume of traffic has also increased."An analysis of traffic movement and traffic count on the Thursday before the Easter weekend for the past five years has demonstrated a higher than normal traffic count on major arterial routes out of Gauteng into Limpopo‚ Kwa-Zulu Natal‚ Mpumalanga and the Free State with the main one being Limpopo due to the Moria gatherings of the two ZCC churches."The highest increase of traffic is usually experienced on the main routes leading out of Gauteng‚ with the busiest routes being the N1 between Pretoria and Beit-bridge‚ R71 to Moria‚ N1 between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein‚ the N3 between Johannesburg and Durban‚ N4 between Pretoria and Nelspruit ‚ N1 between Bloemfontein and Cape Town‚ N2 between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town."..