The fight against road insecurity near schools was at the centre of a meeting in Salé organised by the Observatory for Local Governance. The participants were unanimous in stressing that the prevention of traffic accidents is a collective challenge that requires the mobilisation of everyone: authorities, civil society, parents of pupils...
As part of the celebration of the National Day for Road Safety, the Observatory for Local Governance (OGL) recently organised a meeting in Salé on the theme "Road safety around schools". This meeting, organised in partnership with the Union of Associations of Salé and the National Committee for the Prevention of Traffic Accidents (CNPAC), made it possible to emphasise the importance of combining everyone's efforts to offer better protection to pupils who are road users.
The president of the OGL, Mohammed Sikouk, recalled on this occasion that the responsibility for putting an end to accidents near schools fell to several stakeholders, notably the commune, the National Security, civil society, parents' associations, families and national education staff. "The threats that lurk for pupils who are road users around schools must challenge us all and push us to deploy more efforts by strengthening awareness-raising actions and by adopting concrete initiatives, such as securing access to schools and installing protective barriers", he affirmed.
For her part, Bahija Meziane, a police officer in Salé, highlighted the close collaboration between the National Security services and the city's schools within the framework of a convention signed with the Minister of National Education, specifying that police officials make daily visits to schools to raise pupils' awareness of the importance of respecting the Highway Code. A commitment that seems to be bearing fruit, since the statistics presented by Chief Brigadier Abdelkader El Farji do not show any fatal accidents for the year 2015 among pupils of schools in Salé. However, these same statistics show 17 injured pupils. The two police officers took advantage of this occasion to express the availability of the Salé security services to participate in any initiative aimed at strengthening pupils' awareness of the need to adopt healthy behaviour on the road.
For his part, Mohammed Founounou, an executive at the CNPAC, presented an overview of the evolution of traffic accidents at the national level, the causes and the evolution of indicators. According to him, "the safety of pupils requires a change in behaviour and more awareness-raising actions, because 80% of victims are among the most vulnerable categories, namely pedestrians and two-wheeler users". An opinion shared by Bouchra Ben Hamani, president of the Parents' Association at the Abdelmoumen school. The latter wanted to specify that the issue of the safety of school children deserved the mobilisation of everyone. And to add that local authorities and civil society must get more involved in the efforts to protect children around schools.
