Morocco faces increasing road safety crisis

Road safety levels continue to deteriorate in Morocco, despite a series of policies introduced by the government and a tougher process of enforcement. The country has a human population of 32 million, along with 2.7 million registered vehicles and last year saw 15,000 people severely injured in road accidents, leaving them with long term disabilities.
August 8, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Road safety levels continue to deteriorate in Morocco, despite a series of policies introduced by the government and a tougher process of enforcement. The country has a human population of 32 million, along with 2.7 million registered vehicles and last year saw 15,000 people severely injured in road accidents, leaving them with long term disabilities. The Moroccan Government has been working on improving road safety but the growing vehicle population is providing a severe test, with casualties continuing to climb. The country introduced its new highway code in 2010, as part of the 10-year road safety plan that commenced in 2004. The aim of the 2004 road safety policy was to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries by 5%/year. The fatal accident rate has risen 50% since 1996 when there were 2,807 road deaths. The probability of getting killed in a road accident has risen from 5.77% in 2010 to 6.29% in 2011. With 1,508 deaths in 2011, cars are in first place in terms of user category. This is followed by pedestrians (1,141), motorbikes (923) and trucks (255).

Related Content

  • Europe’s roads are safer, but concerns continue
    July 16, 2019
    New data shows that Europe’s rural roads have seen a major improvement in safety levels. For the 2010 to 2017 period, road deaths on rural roads decreased more quickly than those for urban roads. Urban road safety is now becoming a key concern. Of particular concern for urban traffic is the high casualty rate amongst vulnerable road users (VRUs), which represent around 70% of those being killed. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists still face unacceptably high risks of being killed or seriously injured o
    Read More
  • Spanish road safety shows continued improvement
    January 5, 2015
    Provisional data from Spain shows a continuing drop in fatal road crashes during 2014. Of note is the fact that the country has already achieved the 2020 target of reducing the death rate to 36/1,000,000 inhabitants. The drop in the death rate was slight, just 2%, but still of importance. The provisional data shows that there were 1,131 fatalities and 4,874 people seriously injured in 2014. And this last is of note as the number of people seriously injured in crashes dropped 8% during 2014 compared with the
    Read More
  • Vulnerable road users face greater risks on Europe’s road network
    May 21, 2014
    Data shows that vulnerable road users are benefiting less from improved road safety. This has been revealed in the 2014 Road Safety Annual Report, which highlights latest road safety data. The number of road fatalities fell by 1.7% between 2011 and 2012 in the 31 countries covered by the International Road Traffic and Accident Database (IRTAD), according to the International Transport Forum at the OECD. However, road safety policies are not succeeding in improving protection for vulnerable road users. The l
    Read More
  • 4th Ibero-American road safety focus planned
    July 2, 2014
    The Latin America and Caribbean Region suffers from a high number of crashes on rural roads and also in the urban areas. Road crashes are now one of the leading causes of death in the region, especially for those aged 5-44. There are around 100,000 reported road fatalities/year in Latin America and the Caribbean while over 5 million/year are injured. Data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that the death and serious injury rates are 10-20 times higher than in other industrialised regions, highli
    Read More

Highlighted Content