More road deaths in early 2011

But the actual number of fatal accidents has dropped by 17% – 29 from January this year to April 15 compared to 35 which occurred from January to April 15, 2010. According to official statistics, there were 1,047 road accidents in only for the two first months of 2011 – 13 fatal accidents, 30 qualified as “serious injury accident”, 343 “slight injury” accidents and 661 accidents where only vehicles were damaged.

The fixed cameras on the M1 Motorway in Pailles contravened 13,738 vehicles and 2,306 drivers were fined by handheld radar of the Photographic Enforcement Unit from January this year to April 15.

A spokesperson for the Road Traffic Unit told NEWSNOW that the rise in the number of deaths is higher for the January to April 15 periods this year because of the horrific crash on January 12, which claimed the lives of 11 Bangladeshi workers and their Mauritian driver.

A meeting between officers of the Road Traffic Unit and the prime minister’s special advisor on road safety matters, Mr Ben Buntipilly, was held recently to discuss stepping up efforts to reduce fatal accidents.

“The Road Traffic Unit in collaboration with the entire force will be carrying out two major operations to curb road accidents. We organised the Road Hog operation on a 24/24 basis on Friday last and most officers of the police force were on the roads to inspect vehicles. We also carried out Dragnet Operations and enforce all the recommendations of the Road Traffic Act, including the most minor offences.”

He said that the Road Hog operation would be carried out on a monthly basis and Dragnet would also be repeated randomly.