Radars curb road accidents, says Gendarmerie chief

Motorists hate the speed traps on the “triangle of death”, the country’s most notorious highways for deadly accidents. Introduced in 2011, the campaign involves traffic police lurking out for speeding cars around blind bends and meting non-negotiable fines of CFA 25,000.

The national gendarmerie calls it a road safety campaign. Motorist call it organized crime – an official version of notorious police corruption. However controversial it might be, the introduction of hand-held speed radars on major highways may be paying off. At least that is what the gendarmerie says.

Last week, the half military, half police force disclosed that fewer people are dying on the road because the number of road accidents have fallen – and radars are to be thanked.

“We have gone from 3,522 reported accidents in 2011 to 2500 today; from 1598 deaths to 1100,” the inspector general of gendarmerie Gen Roland Mambo Deffo told camer.be.

The numbers represents a fall of between 29 and 32 percent in both the number of accidents and deaths. The gendarmerie bring annual deaths down to 1000 this year.