Deaths in road accidents rose in 1st half of 1998

The number of persons who died in road accidents rose alarmingly in the first half of 1998, but regressed again by 22 percent starting end of June as the number of accidents dropped by 4.5 percent.

Moroccan minister of transports and merchant navy, Mustapha Mansouri, told the Moroccan TV that the number of persons who died in road accidents is twenty times higher than in Norway and nine times than in France.

He ascribed this tragic situation to the increase of the number of cars in Morocco while the state of roads remained the same in the last ten years. He added that people are not fully aware of road accidents prevention, mainly children.

On remedial solutions, he said awareness campaigns are the best solution. Punative measures will yield good results but are not enough, he said.