Tuesday, 26 September 2023

Marrakech, Rwanda was awarded the first position for embracing road safety measures, especially on Safety vehicles, this was during the 2^nd edition of Kofi Annan Road Safety Award organized jointly with Government of Morocco, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety.

The ambassador of Rwanda to Morocco H.E Zaina Nyiramatama who represented the government of Rwanda in the event appreciated the participants and embarked on the role of road safety in contributing on the economic development as well as preventing the road accidents.

“We share the fact that road safety is paramount subject of concern as we are observing avoidable loss of lives due to traffic crashes where vulnerable class of people become the victims” H.E Zaina.

The government of Rwanda is committed to continue putting in a place both soft and hard infrastructure initiatives aiming at positive combating the road accidents, and produce the positive road safety outcomes.

Among initiatives, the country has invested heavily in construction and rehabilitation of roads while correcting dangerous spots by providing good riding quality. Currently 96. % of paved roads are in effective conditions.

The government has also made speed governors use a mandatory as to regulate the speed to mitigate crashes resulting from over speeding. It has also installed speed cameras on all paved road network, especially in critical zone across the country and this exercise has contributed to reduce the road fatalities.

From the perspective that the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 reflects an ambitious target to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries by 50% by 2023. It is obvious that they can be prevented by addressing the whole of the transport system, taking action to ensure safe roads, vehicles and behaviors as well as improving emergency care.