The Mozambican Minister of Transport and Communications, Mateus Magala, said on Monday (16) that the road authorities are going to expand the remote traffic control and monitoring system, with a view to reducing the number of road accidents in the country, the newspaper Noticias reported on Tuesday (17).
According to the newspaper, the information was shared during the inauguration of road safety infrastructures in Maputo, in the south of the country. These infrastructures include traffic monitoring and enforcement cameras, a centre for monitoring traffic offences, a pedestrian bridge, roundabouts and traffic lights built in the municipalities of Maputo, Matola and Marracuene, at a cost of 442.4 million meticals (7 million dollars), financed by South Korea.
According to Magala, with this project, ‘the country is embracing a new concept of promoting road safety that should be adjusted to local needs and specificities.’
In addition to the infrastructure, the initiative also includes a system for monitoring offences and processing fines at the provincial and municipal headquarters of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique in Maputo, in order to promote transparency and speed in road policing and the accountability of offending drivers.
He emphasised that, ‘as well as facilitating compliance with the law, the system also reinforces the need for responsibility in the use of the roads, while challenging road enforcement agents to be more honest and transparent.’
According to road accident figures presented by the minister, from January to September this year, 459 road accidents were recorded, resulting in 555 deaths, a 4% reduction on the first nine months of last year, as well as 413 serious injuries.
From the point of view of the type of accident, hit-and-run accidents continue to dominate the statistics, with a contribution of around 35 per cent, followed by crashes, which accounted for 27 per cent.
As for the causes, human behaviour remains predominant in almost all cases. ‘This data leaves no doubt that there is a lot of work to be done to tackle this road terrorism, considering the problem of pedestrian accidents as one of the project’s components,’ said Mateus Magala.