It is indeed tragic, but lack of public transport, road conditions or speed have nothing to do with the high rate of road deaths in this country. As already mentioned providing "adeuquate" public transport in rural areas is next to impossible, given the remoteness and sparse population of some ares. I agree that road conditions in this country have a lot to wish for, but drivers have to adjust their driving to the conditions that prevail, whether it be bad surfaces or bad weather.
Speed is the biggest red herring. It is constantly being branded by the RSA as the "biggest killer", and if only we all reduced our speed by 10% more lives would be saved. If speed were really a problem when it comes to road deaths then Germany would have to have by far the highest rate of road deaths, which it doesn't. Another example is Sweden, which has one of lowest road death rates; it is said by anti-speed campainers that it is due to strict speed limits and enforcement that Sweden has such safe roads. But this completely ignores the fact that for most of the year you cannot drive at anywhere near the speedlimits.
What does make a big difference in both Germany and Sweden is their driver eduction systems. Road safety and rules of the road are taught to school children. Learner drivers are only allowed to drive with an instructor in a specially fitted instructors car; only once they pass a written test after about a dozen theory hours, and after taking specialised lessons for motorway, country road and night time driving, do learners get to do the driving test. And only after passing the test are they alowed to drive alone. Not sure about Sweden, but in Germany a newly qualified driver is only allowed half the normal penalty point in the first 2 years to encourage better driver behaviour.
Driver education in this country is pretty abismal; maybe not the worst in Europe, but I am absolutely against allowing learner drivers on the road without a qualified instructor. I believe the reason that the driver education system is not being completely overhauled is for political reasons. As soon as it was announced a few years ago that L drivers who were not accompanied by a qualified driver would be heavily fined, there was public outcry. Imagine what people would be saying if the L plate was gotten rid of altogether.
Speed is not the biggest killer, it is drivers' incompetence and ignorance when it comes to adjusting their driving to the prevailing conditions.