The Award

The Vocational Service of the Rotary Club of Vacoas instituted the Creativity Award to initiate students of secondary schools into developing their creativity in various fields. This award is known as the Heman Guness Creativity Award in remembrance of one of our most dynamic and enthusiastic members of the Club who passed away in 2004 at a prime age of 42. He served the country and Rotary for a number of years as a professional in the field of dentistry and as a social worker.

The award seeks to engage students into investigating a real problem and thus to go beyond the routine of the classroom activities. It is expected to be an added boost to students who seek to engage in more meaningful learning activities, as well as provide evidence that would testify to their ability to display a wider range of ability as students. The problem chosen allowed students to investigate the acute problem of traffic congestion.

Road Safety

The Club arranged for a presentation on road safety on the occasion.  

Mauritius has a total length of 2028 km of road, with Motorways MI and M2 of 55kms where a maximum speed limit of 90kms/hr is allowed. There is 945km of urban and rural road where the speed limit is 45km/hr. Motor vehicles in Mauritius expanded from 276,371 in 2003 to 334,145 in 2007. In 2008 there were 149781 cars, 145107 motorised two wheelers 25097 vans, 12618    lorries, 2764 busses and 677 other vehicles.

The fatality rate per 10,000 persons in Mauritius stood at 11.3 in Mauritius compared to 5.6 in UK and 14.6 in US. Global Fatality Rate is 19. On an average 20,500 accidents are reported to the police each year. 141 people are killed in road accidents, 258 seriously injured and 2,350 slightly injured yearly. Of the victims, pedestrians top the chart with 36%, riders 24%, passengers 21%, drivers 12% and pedal cyclist 12%.

In Mauritius there are three traffic calming devises used: flat top humps, round top humps, and thermoplastic audible warning devises (rumble strips). For pedestrian there is pedestrian footbridge, pedestrian signal crossing and pedestrian refuge area in the middle of the road to allow safer crossing. The traffic management unit has provided for speed zones for additional safety.

The number of traffic offences identified was 21885 in 2005 and 31774 in 2006. There were 1528 positive alcohol tests registered in 2001 and 858 in 2006; negative tests were 492 and 1284 for the same periods, showing that the police continue to be active on this count.

 The way forward

The traffic management unit seeks to build up a good and reliable database system, encourage collaboration across a range of sectors including Ministry of Housing and Lands (Land use planning) and National Transport Authority, Local Govt., Police force etc.., and coordination, partnerships between public and private sectors as well as accountability, adequate resources and a strong political will.

The points that remains still to ponder are that there is a multiplicity of uncoordinated institutions; the regulatory framework is weak and inconsistent, there is still an absence of targets to focus traffic and road safety interventions, inadequate data for performance tracking and accountability and very little evidence of successful implementation.