Statistics Mauritius has just published some figures about the number of vehicles registered. At the end of June 2022, there were 636,116 vehicles registered at the National Land Transport Authority (NLTA). This represents a net increase of 13,128 vehicles (2.1%) as compared to end of year 2021 when the number of registered vehicles was 622,988.
During the first semester of 2022, the fleet was strengthened with the registration of 16,290 vehicles, of which 9,480 (58.2%) were new, 4,441 (27.3%) were imported second-hand and 2,369 (14.5%) were re-registered vehicles, i.e., those which had been previously put off the road. During the same period 3,162 vehicles were put off the road. The net addition to the existing fleet thus, worked out to 13,128 vehicles.
Composition of fleet
A breakdown of the fleet by type of vehicle is given in Table 1.2. At the end of June 2022, the fleet consisted of 53.8% (342,223) cars, double cab pickup and dual-purpose vehicles and 36.8% (233,851) auto/motorcycles. The remaining 9.4% comprised vans (30,521), lorries and trucks (17,488), buses (3,169) and other vehicles (8,864).
At the end of June 2022, the number of cars, double cab pickup and dual-purpose vehicles was 342,223, a rise of 2.4% over the figure of 334,104 as at end of December 2021. This increase resulted from the registration of 9,663 such vehicles (5,478 new, 3,004 imported second-hand and 1,181 re-registered), partly offset by 1,544 vehicles that were put off the road.
At the end of June 2022, there were 3,169 registered buses, out of which 1,984 or 62.6% were ‘public’ buses operating with a road service licence. During the first semester of 2022, some 18 new buses were registered.
At the end of June 2022, there were 233,851 motorcycles and auto cycles. This represents a net increase of 4,288 (+1.9%) against 229,563 at the end of December 2021.
Road traffic accidents
Following the introduction of tablets for data collection in 2021, technical problems were encountered. Hence, the response rate on returns of accidents causing casualty was low. Consequently, several statistics could not be computed. These include seriousness of injury of casualties, types of vehicles and class of road users involved in accidents, and accidents involving ‘hit and run’ cases among others.
The number of road accidents registered during the first semester of 2022 increased by 35.7% to reach 16,934 as compared to 12,477 recorded during the corresponding period of 2021. Among these accidents, in the majority, 15,920 (94.0%) there were no injury, 42 were fatal and 972 caused serious or slight injuries.
Compared to the same period of 2021, casualty accidents increased by 19.0%, non- injury accidents by 36.9% while fatal accidents decreased by 17.6%.
The number of persons who died because of road accidents during the period January to June 2022 was 44 compared to 53 during the corresponding period of 2021.
Out of the 44 persons who died in road accidents during the first semester of 2022, the most vulnerable ones were riders/pillion riders of motorised two wheelers (22) and pedestrians (17).
