Provisional figures for fatalities on the Western Cape's roads were dramatically down on last year, provincial traffic services said on Wednesday.

However, the figure could rise when a number of outstanding accident reports had been processed, spokesperson Roncliff Dirks said.

By Tuesday, there had been 45 traffic fatalities in the province since the beginning of the month — 15 drivers, 17 passengers and 13 pedestrians.

Last year's 23 December total was 139 deaths.

Dirks said 39 accidents recorded by the SA Police had not yet been integrated into the data base. It was not known at this stage how many of those involved deaths.

For that reason it was too early to celebrate.

"I hope that it [the figure] will stay down," Dirks said.

"It will be a major achievement if it does. It would mean that traffic and members of the public are actually adhering to the messages we put across to them."

He said the heaviest traffic in the province was occurring on the N2, rather than the N1.

On Tuesday afternoon, in the hour up to 4pm, 1400 vehicles were recorded on the N2 on the outskirts of Knysna heading in the direction of Cape Town, and 1100 heading for Port Elizabeth.

There were 1900 outbound vehicles on Sir Lowry's Pass, outside Cape Town, and 1600 coming in.

At Beaufort West on the N1, in contrast, there were only 312 incoming vehicles and 209 outgoing during the same hour.

Dirks said last year's counts were not accurate, and that this year's statistics would set a reliable benchmark for future years.

However, traffic officers on those key routes had said they believed traffic flow was about the same as last year.

Sapa