Morocco Savvy

Morocco’s roads killed more people in 2006 than the year before - but at least the numbers aren’t growing as fast as they used to.

Exactly 3,622 people died on Moroccan roads in 2006. That’s 4.1 percent more than the year before.

In a desperate search for some - any - good news in the road safety statistics, the ministry of Transport focuses on that last number. 

That 4.1 percent is down from the average increase in the death rate of 4.7 percent that Morocco recorded annually before 2004, the year the government introduced the Integrated Strategic Emergency Plan for road safety.

The increase in the number of deaths on the road is slowing. Government spin à la marocaine.

Le Matin, usually a bit of a mouthpiece for the Moroccan government, likens the numbers to “a civil war”.

Here goes:

• 56,426 road accidents with injuries (+ 5.2 percent)
• 3,622 people killed (+4.1 percent)
• 12,060 people seriously injured (+2.1 percent)
• 71,129 more people injured less seriously (+8.2 percent) 

That’s almost 10.9 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. Surprisingly, when you look at that same “Population Death Rate“ for other countries, Morocco isn’t the outright league winner we’d expected it to be.

The chance of dying on the road in Morocco is roughly the same, statistically speaking, as in Spain, Austria, New Zealand and Luxemburg.

Countries with a higher death rate on the roads include Greece (19.3 per 100,000 inhabitants), Poland (15.0) and the United States - where 14.5 people per 100,000 inhabitants were killed on the roads in 2004.

It’s official: Morocco’s roads are safer than those in the US. That’s one popular myth that we’ve managed to debunk so far.

But be careful nonetheless. Especially on the roads around Marrakech, Agadir, Khouribga, Safi and El Jadida. In the statistics, these regions recorded the highest numbers of deaths on the road in 2006.

And be particularly prudent when driving somewhere around Fes. That’s where the increase in deaths caused by car accident exploded last year: 169 victims, up a staggering 47 percent from 2005.

• Time for a tough new road law

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Driving, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.