Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
119
It is evident from Figure 18 that the downward trend in road safety accidents and fatalities has
not continued in 2015. It should be pointed out that the development of road safety crashes has
not been corrected for the development in the number of road users and the vehicle park in
Morocco. This would take a more refined statistical analysis that lies outside the scope of the
present case study.
High risk categories and prevalent crash types
Passenger cars and motorcycles are the most common vehicles involved in crashes. Some 80%
of crashes involving vehicles in rural areas involve a car of motorcycle. In urban areas some 88%
of crashes involve cars or motorcycles (with nearly 34% of these being motorcycles). A concern
is that is significant proportion (35%) of all vehicles involved in crashes is older than 15 years
old. Some 27% of motorcycles involved in crashes are older than 9 years whereas some 57% of
cars in crashes are this age. Even considering the rapid advancement of technology in the
automotive sector this implies that many cars and motorcycles on Moroccan roads do not have
the latest technology such as state-of-the-art occupant protection, ABS and ESP. Furthermore,
although it is compulsory to wear seat belt both in front seats and back seats since 2005, it is not
certain when it became compulsory for new vehicles to be fitted with rear seat belts or by which
date all cars had to be (retro) fitted with rear seat belts.
Pedestrians are a particularly high risk group with more than 27% of those victims killed and
more than 21% seriously injured in traffic crashes being pedestrians. Another high risk group
are motorcyclists (20% of all fatalities and ca. 29% of all serious injuries). Considering that the
modal share of these groups is usually relatively small this may imply that they are
disproportionality represented in the number of serious injuries and fatalities.
11.3 Road Safety Management
Road safety
The overall responsibility for road transport rests with theMinistry of Equipment and Transport
and Logistics (METL) which is responsible for the administration and regulation (legislation) of
road transport.
Road safety management falls under the responsibility of the Inter-ministerial Committee on
road safety (CISR) which is chaired by the Head of Government. Under the inter-ministerial
committee is the Permanent Committee on road Safety (CPSR) which is headed by the Minister
of Transport. Reporting to this committee are the Regional Committees (CRSR) headed by the
governor (called the Wali) of each region. These road safety management bodies have been
established by decree.
The Department of Road Transportation Safety (DTRSR) has the overall administrative
responsibility for road traffic safety in the country and supports the above committees. CNPAC
is responsible for road safety education and campaigns whereas road safety engineering and
traffic law enforcement activities are spread across all departments with no apparent central