Rabat – One person died and 37 others were injured in an accident involving 20 cars on the national highway between Rabat and Kenitra at the entrance of Sidi Taibi town in Kenitra province.
The accident occurred early in the morning on Sunday, November 14, according to local reports.
Royal Gendarmerie and civil protection units were mobilized to the scene of the accident to recover bodies and transfer survivors to El Idrissi Hospital in Kenitra.
Local sources indicated that three of the survivors sustained serious injuries.
An investigation is being carried out to shine more light on the circumstances and causes of the accident.
Photos of the accident shared on social media show various cars crashing into each other.
Although road accidents rates have been considerably low in Morocco since last year due to the ongoing pandemic, the country’s first weeks of a relative return of pre-COVID-19 normalcy have been marked by a significant increase in traffic accidents.
Last month, two people died and 12 others were injured after an intercity bus carrying passengers overturned at the entrance of Skoura, 44.5 kilometers from Ouarzazate in southeastern Morocco.
According to the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN), 19 people were killed and 2,269 others were injured in traffic accidents across Morocco between October 18 and 24.
Meanwhile, during the first week of August, nine people died and 1,983 others were injured, including 72 seriously, in 1,431 traffic accidents in urban areas.
Morocco’s Agency for Road Safety (NARSA) reported 1,193 deaths in the first five months of 2021, a 36.7% increase compared to a year earlier.
However, the percentage remains relatively low as the number of accident-related fatalities has decreased by 8.1% compared to 2019.
