Morocco Tightens Road Safety Laws: Gendarmerie Pushes for Harsher Penalties

In 2022, the royal gendarmerie recorded 5,577 offenses between failure to respect and fleeing the scene of a traffic accident, 11 traffic accidents at its control points, as well as more or less serious gendarmes. Based on this gloomy assessment, Colonel Ali Benayza, on the occasion of the academic day organized by the public prosecutor’s office on the theme "National Road Safety Strategy," called for taking stricter disciplinary measures against the perpetrators of this type of offense, reports Hespress. According to the official, the sanction related to this type of offense "does not achieve the desired goal, especially when the offense is associated with another or a crime at the time of the act." According to Article 181 of the Highway Code, the penalty applied to each driver who has ignored the order to stop has been set by the agents in charge of examining traffic offenses at 1200 to 2000 DH.

Other proposals: the inclusion of various types of vehicles in the requirements of Article 185 of the Highway Code, which requires vehicles used for the collective transport of persons to have usable fire extinguishers. "The risk of fire is not limited to tankers or vehicles whose total weight exceeds 3.5 tons and which are intended for the transport of goods, or for the transport of passengers," said Colonel Benayza.