The sixth meeting of the National Road Safety Commission was chaired by the Prime Minister, Minister of Defence, Home Affairs and External Communications, Minister for Rodrigues, Outer Islands and Territorial Integrity, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, yesterday afternoon, at the Treasury Building in Port-Louis in the presence of several Ministers.
The National Road Safety Commission was set up in May 2016 to oversee and implement road safety strategies.
The Prime Minister thus announced that Government would carry out a national sensitisation and prevention road safety campaign as from October to December 2023 to better educate the population, in particular pedestrians and drivers, on the need to be vigilant and to always abide by traffic laws. This will be carried out in collaboration with the private sector. The Prime Minister made this statement a few minutes ago after a meeting of the National Road Safety Commission, which he chairs.
Pravind Jugnauth expressed his sympathy to all the victims of road accidents. He also mentioned the death of a 19-year-old man yesterday in La Butte. For him, each victim of a road accident represents a tragedy for the family, loved ones and for the country.
He said that the causes have been studied and that one of the determining factors in accidents is the behaviour of the road user, whether he or she is a driver, motorcyclist, cyclist or pedestrian.
He added that the commission had noted that a large proportion of accidents occur in the evening.
Pravind Jugnauth has therefore announced a national awareness and prevention campaign with the help of the private sector.
In response to a question from the press, he said that there would be changes in the law but insisted that the points-based licence needed to be reviewed.
Furthermore, Mr Jugnauth observed that from 2017 to 2022, a decrease in fatal accidents was registered. Nevertheless, he remarked that the number of vehicles on the road had significantly increased over the years. He deplored too those statistics showed that from January to August 2023, 36% of two wheelers were implicated in fatal road accidents; 37% were pedestrians; and that almost 60% of accidents occurred during the night. He seized the occasion to express his deepest sympathy to the families of victims of road accidents.
Moreover, the Prime Minster dwelt on governmental measures as regard the enhancement and strengthening of existing laws and regulations to improve road safety and reduce the number of road fatalities.
Speaking on the implementation of the Metro Express Project, he pointed out that there were new traffic regulations that road users should abide by. He urged the population to pay attention to these regulations and road directives, stressing the necessity to adapt to infrastructure development and changes while remaining safe on the roads.
