(Rabat) Five people were killed and 27 others injured, including 12 seriously, in a road accident on Wednesday in Morocco, near Rabat, we learned from local authorities.
A minibus hit a tree after the driver lost control of his vehicle in the rural town of Brachoua, about fifty kilometers from the capital, according to the same sources.
The injured were hospitalized, 12 of them in serious condition. An investigation has been opened.
The roads in Morocco – and more generally in the Maghreb countries – are reputed to be dangerous and accidents are frequent.
Among the most serious, 11 people were killed and 43 were injured in a bus accident on November 22 near the town of Taza, in the northeast of the kingdom.
Another bus accident left 23 dead and 36 injured on August 17, 2022 east of Casablanca, one of the deadliest traffic dramas in Morocco in recent years.
Coaches and minibuses are a mode of transport widely used by Moroccans, especially the most modest who cannot afford a car, to travel in rural and isolated areas.
In 2022, road accidents killed more than 3,200 people in Morocco, a figure down some 7% from the previous year, according to the latest statistics from the National Road Safety Agency (NARSA).
Moroccan authorities have implemented a series of measures to try to combat the scourge of road insecurity, and halve the death rate by 2026, following the worst bus accident in history of the country in 2012 (42 dead).