Portugal - 30 years behind on road safety

In a posting on the Presidency of the Republic website, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa today warned of "a lamentable reversal of the trend of decreasing road accidents and fatalities since 2010."

The Secretary of State for Civil Protection, José Artur Neves, said that road accidents in Portugal have a negative impact of €2.3 billion, equivalent to 1.2% of the country's GDP.

Today is the World Day of Victims of the Road 2018, and despite the progress that has been made, the death toll remains high, “three decades behind the countries of northern Europe that have adapted urban spaces and made them safer," said Neves.

"The government has road safety as one of its essential pillars for a society that values ​​well-being. It is necessary to have a collective mobilisation of Portuguese society against the scourge of road accidents. The challenge is gigantic," concluded the Secretary of State.

The vice president of the National Highway Safety Authority, Fernando Moutinho, commented that 80 to 95% of road accidents are caused "by the behaviour of the driver."

The President of the Republic made an appeal to the Portuguese driving public to combat road accidents in the country and called for authorities to emphasise, "prevention, education and signaling."

"Road fatalities have a tragic and immense effect on all those who live with the painful, often permanent, memories caused by the traumatic loss of someone close to them. It is a serious problem on a global scale, but also on a national scale," read the President’s online missive.

Comments  

+1 #7 lord blore 2018-11-25 16:51

bad driving instruction when being taught is the major problem to the high accidents.you are taught to when turning right you must use your right indicator,nothing about your left indicator that you can use when Portugal score a goal or weddings,so when turning left against on coming traffic no need to indicate and if they see a car coming 100 metres away,they still have that horse and cart mentality of it only traveling 10 klm per hour and a split second before it hits them it turn out to be jaguar car and not a horse.next when they see a roundabout they think its a formula one racing track and try to round as quick as possible with no indicators going whatsoever so all other drivers have to try and guess which way you are going which turns out to be a much failed quiz. the biggest fatalities in Portugal is on zebra crossings,and that is because the Portuguese and others think they have right away regard less ,not so, they have right away yes but only when the traffic comes to a stand still, and drivers must stop if they see someone waiting to cross, but to cross before a driver stops is a big killer,and why, because of any given time 10% of cars etc cannot stop, through brakes failing, folk not passing their mot properly, to much to drink, misjudgement, so every time you cross without looking and waiting you have a 1 in 10 chance of being knocked over and killed. all over the world the rule is when turning left keep left,when turning right keep right, and using both indicators,to let other drivers know witch way your going,the rule in Portugal is leave to the idiot.

+1 #6 Joao Perreira 2018-11-25 11:13

Best roads in Europe. Worst drivers in Europe. Every single Portuguese driver cuts you up after overtaking. Tailgating. Impatient............ Police do nothing just hassle people for fines for ridiculous infringements but ignore dangerous driving.

+2 #5 liveaboard 2018-11-19 10:52

The southern European practice of a glass or two of Vino at lunch, and more for dinner, might have something to do with the statistics.
While foreign residents complain about Portuguese road culture, they seem to embrace the alcohol culture with great enthusiasm.

+7 #4 Not Surprised 2018-11-19 09:05

Surely the correct order should be ... Education, Signalling and Prevention ?

+8 #3 PHOENIX 2018-11-19 08:46

As well as speed & the lack of patience the big problem is that vehicles here in Portugal old or new don't seem to have that optional extra that in the rest of the world are known as indicators .

+5 #2 Maria Clarke 2018-11-19 08:13

The root of this is cultural, the comments tacitly admit that. Understanding that is key and very complicated. Changing it - well that will take some doing.

+8 #1 Mike Towl 2018-11-19 07:24

Only 30 years????? Stick another zero on.

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