Fines are not the only solution
The government’s strategy to reduce road accidents seems to be very straight forward:
- Installation of Speed Cameras in some regions and later increase the speed limit because the authorities realized that when people drive slowly, the busiest part of the motorway becomes like hell, thus slowing down part of the country
- Playing hide and seek with the mobile speed cameras
- Increasing fines to discourage people from violating existing laws
Despite his long service in the police force, the Prime Ministers’ special security advisor, Mr Ben Buntipilly has still not understood that not all road accidents are caused by drivers. Appointed a few months ago, no concrete actions have been taken yet.
As you can see above, even some members of the police force are unaware that vehicles should not be parked on double yellow lines or on pavements 
Coming back to the topic, millions of rupees are contributed (or rather, taxes that Mauritians are forced to pay) to the government and this amount is surely growing exponentially with the introduction of speed cameras. Yet, the authorities only concentrate on building new roads to cater for the increasing number of vehicles, around 350, 000 vehicles if I correctly heard a few days ago.
At the end of the day, the sole strategy remains “Punishing drivers by making them pay (money of course)”. In my opinion, the introduction of “Point System” will definitely make drivers think twice. Everyone will be treated equally, whether the rich or the poor. So, you might rarely see those drivers playing “crazy taxi” on our roads or witness the rich ones do anything they like because of their huge bank accounts.
[Picture updated on 18 Jan 2011 : Removed the license car plate number]
Our road infrastructure definitely needs improvement. Just to give you an example : The Triolet By Pass Road includes about 4 roundabouts. Instead of designing better roads to cater for a fluid traffic for the growing number of vehicles, these roundabouts are pretty inconvenient and prone places for accidents.
Some additional areas of improvement : Road markings, visibility at night, bus lay-by, informing the population about defensive (and preventive) driving, more rigorous control for the quality and reliability of vehicles (Vehicle Fitness).
Anything more to share on your behalf?
