To reduce road violence and therefore the number of road victims, regulations have evolved over time, taking into account emerging risks and user behavior.
Road violence has serious socio-economic consequences. Each year, more than 3,500 people are killed and more than 10,000 seriously injured are recorded in Morocco. The country made road safety a national priority and adopted its first national strategy in this area in 2005, during the 1st meeting of the ministerial committee responsible for road safety. Before evaluating the current results and looking at the prospects, it is essential to make an overview of the milestones of the road safety strategy in Morocco from the regulatory and institutional point of view.
From 1953 to 2005…
Road safety policy in Morocco has gone through several milestones since the decree on the conservation of public roads in 1953 until today. In its latest issue, the police magazine also highlights the main phases of the road safety strategy in Morocco and the efforts made to strengthen the system that accompanies it. It must be said that the country adhered in 1959 to the International Convention on Road Traffic and the Protocol of the Geneva Final Act of 1949 (Dahir No. I-58-210 of 7 Joumada II 1379, – December 8, 1959- publishing the International Convention on Road Traffic, the Protocol to the Geneva Final Act of September 19, 1949). Morocco has also established an institutional and regulatory framework for road safety management, along with strategies and action plans to combat road insecurity. At that time, the legal framework for road safety in Morocco was governed by the Dahir relating to the conservation of public roads and the traffic and traffic police dating from January 19, 1953.
To reduce road violence and therefore the number of road victims, regulations have evolved over time, taking into account emerging risks and user behavior. Thus comes the obligation to wear a protective helmet, then the seat belt, speed limits or even the use of the telephone while driving. “These measures have been supported by the integration of control technologies such as radars which are constantly evolving and automating, to reduce the feeling of impunity among offenders”, indicates the same source. With the increasing number of traffic accidents and their negative repercussions on the economy and the development of the country, Morocco has set up a body specially dedicated to the integrated management of road safety. Hence the creation of the National Committee for the Prevention of Traffic Accidents “CNPAC” by Decree No. 2-72-275 of 15-07-1977 and placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Equipment, Transport, logistics and water.
2005, the year the strategy was launched
The year 2005 marked a turning point for road safety policy in the country with the ministerial meeting in charge of road safety chaired by His Majesty King Mohammed VI on February 18 of the same year. Thus, February 18 has been chosen to celebrate National Road Safety Day each year. To monitor the national road safety strategy, a Standing Committee chaired by the Minister of Transport has been established. A reform of the legal framework followed.
To this end, Law No. 52-05 on the Highway Code was drawn up in 2010. It was amended and supplemented in 2016 by Law No. 116-14.
The Narsa is born
The road safety system has been strengthened with the creation of the National Road Safety Agency (NARSA). Thus, Law No. 103-14, published in the Official Bulletin of March 12, 2018, created this public establishment. Subsequently, Decree No. 2.19.732 implementing Law No. 103-14 was published in the Official Bulletin of October 10, 2019. In this sense, Narsa replaces CNPAC with a broader scope of action. This structure focuses on all facets of road safety management and becomes its main player.
In addition to communication and awareness-raising aspects, it has new missions such as approving the people to whom the design of vehicle registration plates will be assigned, organizing examinations for obtaining driving licenses, issuing driving licenses, keeping the file driver’s license and manage the capital of points assigned to it, approve vehicles, their devices and accessories, issue the vehicle registration certificate and maintain the national vehicle file, carry out technical checks and technical counter-visits of vehicles, manage the system of control and automated observation of infringements by the use of technical devices, in accordance with the legislation and regulations in force, draw up and evaluate the national control plans, in coordination with all the organizations responsible for road control, carry out awareness-raising, communication communication and supervision in the field of road safety or to establish plans and programs on road education for the benefit of children and young people and to ensure their execution.
Moreover, the Agency had presented the national road control plan for the period 2022-2024, as part of the implementation of the national road safety strategy 2017-2026.
A record far from satisfactory
On the road safety report, Mohammed Abdeljalil, Minister of Transport and Logistics presented to the Council of Government which was held on February 17, 2022 an inventory of road safety in Morocco. For him, the integrated national road safety strategy covering the decade 2004-2013 has made it possible to control the annual upward trend in traffic accidents, in addition to the establishment of an Interministerial Road Safety Committee and the adoption of the law 52-05 on the Highway Code, which entered into force on October 1, 2010. He recalled that the evaluation of this strategy made it possible to draw up a new strategy for the period 2017-2026 involving all the players concerned. The objective is to reduce fatalities by 50% by 2026. This strategy has been deployed through a first five-year plan 2017-2021 which aims to reduce the number of fatalities to 25% in 2021, i.e. less than 2,800 fatalities. , however the balance sheet recorded at the end of this period reached 3,676 killed, thus preventing the achievement of the objective set. Furthermore, and although these results remain far from the objectives set, certain achievements should be highlighted, such as the amendment of the highway code, with the introduction of new offences; the launch of a new fixed speed camera network extension program with the addition of 552 new generation units; the launch of the 2nd phase of the Special Road Safety Development Program (PSAS) in 2017, for an amount of 2.2 billion dirhams; increased premiums for the fleet renewal program; the launch of the program to support the training of professional drivers, with an annual budget of 100 million dirhams; in addition to the creation of NARSA in 2018. The ministry is working on the evaluation of the first phase of this strategy to identify the constraints that have delayed the achievement of the set objectives. The Minister also explained that the implementation of a new five-year plan 2022-2026 under the same conditions as the previous one is not likely to allow the achievement of the 50% reduction in the number of deaths in 2026. , emphasizing that the assessment should identify the means likely to achieve the desired results, within the framework of new objectives set in coherence with the global decade of action 2021-2030.