Moroccan Bus Crash - twelve deaths

The road toll in Morocco continues to climb with twelve people being killed and twenty-four injured when a tourist coach had a head-on collision with an articulated truck.

The accident took place on Saturday afternoon on the main road between Casablanca and Marrakech, near the village of Benguerir in western Morocco.

Maghreb Arabe Presse is reporting that eight of those who died were French tourists, while a French news agency is reporting seven French fatalities and one Swedish. The four remaining deaths were Moroccan nationals. The twenty-four injured passengers were taken to the military hospital in Marrakech and it is not yet clear how many of them were tourists. The hospital is reporting that fifteen of the injured are in a serious condition.

Marie-Christine Chauvet, the head of the French travel company, FRAM, said: "The bus was equipped with seat belts, though wearing them is not compulsory in Morocco." It is understood that the weather was bad and the roads wet at the time, which may well have been a contributing factor.

King Mohammed sent his condolences to the victims' families, the agency said. It said he had decided to pay hospital expenses for the injured, the costs of returning "the remains of the dead of foreign origin" and burial costs of the Moroccan victims.

Despite a high-profile road safety campaign, the number of people dying on Morocco's roads has grown this year, with 317 people killed in 4,551 accidents in September alone, up from 4,359 accidents and 299 deaths in the same month a year earlier. Tourism bodies have called for action to improve Morocco's dismal road safety record, worried that it will put off visitors to the kingdom and hamper efforts to boost tourism, a crucial source of foreign currency.

The authorities recently instructed traffic police to confiscate the licenses of drivers who commit offenses such as speeding, jumping a red light or failing to stop at junctions and then do not pay their fine.

There have been a growing number of accidents involving tour buses - back in February a bus carrying 36 Swedish passengers crashed while traveling from Agadir to Marrakech. In August, seventeen people were killed after a bus carrying 50 passengers rolled over near the central Moroccan town of Setta. Another 26 people were injured in the accident, which was attributed to excessive speed. 12 people were injured seriously.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news