Skip to main content

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

  • TISPOL European speeding crackdown nets 120,000 tickets in 24 hours (Video)
    April 28, 2015
    The first pan-European 24-hour speeding enforcement crackdown resulted in police issuing more than 120,000 penalties. TISPOL, the European Traffic Police Network based in London, UK, said the “marathon” took place earlier this month and so far 17 out of 22 participating countries have provided data. A total of 4,352,234 vehicles were checked during the 24 hours. Of the 122,581 speeding offences, 116,479 were detected by police officers, with 6,102 detections using automatic devices. Police in Germa
  • UN sets global target for road safety
    October 21, 2015
    The UN has set a global benchmark for reducing traffic fatalities on the world’s road network. Data shows that every year, almost 1.3 million people are killed in road crashes around the globe, according to information gathered by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In a bid to tackle this major problem, world leaders recently vowed to halve the number of global deaths and injuries from road traffic accidents by 2020. This target was agreed at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York.
  • UK road safety is a concern
    September 29, 2023
    UK road safety is a concern as crashes increase.
  • France sees increase in road crashes
    May 20, 2016
    France has seen an increase in its road fatality rate during 2015. Official figures show that road casualties again increased during 2015, the second consecutive year that this has occurred. Road deaths increased by 2.3% over the figure for 2014 and reached 3,461 in 2015. This increased fatality rate is of note as for the 12 years previous to 2014, France’s road death rate had reduced.