Road safety for Thailand and Morocco

Both in Thailand and Morocco the authorities are looking separately at ways in which road safety can be improved.

The two countries face similar problems with regard to road safety and have, independently, embarked on similar paths with a view to resolving the issue. Morocco’s Works and Transport Ministry is setting up a think tank that will attempt to tackle the country’s growing rate of road fatalities. The Moroccan Government intends to ban the use of unroadworthy vehicles and will further amend the country’s highway code. In 2011, there were over 4,000 road deaths in Morocco, a 12% increase over the previous year.

Meanwhile the police in Thailand are working on a campaign to prevent road accidents. The project involves both academics and the police and has received funding from the 6569 Thai Health Promotion Foundation. The first phase of the project was carried out in 2011 and revealed that poor road conditions and unroadworthy vehicles contributed to the high accident rate.

Bad driving and poor pedestrian safety were identified as major causes of accidents. The second phase of the project commenced at the start of this year and is intended to reduce accident levels. Police at 420 stations around the country are collecting data on road accidents and this information will be analysed centrally in a bid to find solutions to the problems, while better emergency procedures will also be established to cut deaths amongst the injured.