While the number of road accidents in Morocco is slowly declining, it is still far from reaching the authorities’ goals.
Rabat – The number of fatal road accidents in Morocco decreased by 1.83% from 2018 to 2019, according to provisional statistics that Minister of Equipment, Transport, Logistics, and Water Abdelkader Amara presented in Rabat on Friday, January 31.
From 3,066 fatal accidents in 2018, the number of fatal accidents in 2019 was under 3,010.
Morocco launched a road safety strategy in 2017, aiming to bring car accident deaths under 1,900 annually by 2026, and to have no more than 3,000 road accident deaths in 2020.
Accident deaths, however, remain more frequent than the objective.
In 2018, 3,485 people died in road accidents, including 893 pedestrians (26% of all victims), and 1,175 drivers of two-wheeled and three-wheeled machines (34%).
In the same year, around 128,249 people sustained nonfatal injuries, including 8,725 with severe injuries.
The total number of road accidents in 2018 reached 96,133.
According to the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN), some of the most common causes of road accidents are lack of control of vehicles, failing to yield, excessive speed, and pedestrian and driver errors.
Over the last decade, around 3,500 people lost their lives in road accidents every year, while 12,000 sustained severe injuries annually. On average, there are 10 deaths and 33 serious injuries per day.
The previous national strategy for road safety (2004-2013) saved around 9,210 lives and spared thousands of severe injuries, asserts the Ministry of Equipment.
The number of victims, however, is still high compared to developed countries, the ministry says.
According to the World Health Organization, road accidents are a major global problem. Each year, around 1.3 million people die in road accidents and several million get injured or handicapped because of them.
