New rules for road safety are on the way: enhanced checks at night, restrictions on those who cause accidents while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, prevention in schools. And then the hypothesis of making plates and helmets compulsory for scooters. The government is trying to put a stop to the massacre on the roads, after the many dramatic episodes of recent weeks.
The meeting at the Ministry of Transport
In a preliminary meeting at MIT – which was attended by the deputy prime minister and minister of infrastructure and transport Matthew Salvinithe Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosithat of education Joseph Vallettara and the Chief of Police Lambert Giannini – an initial common commitment has been made on the issue of road safety and an action plan has been established: in January a round table with technicians will be convened, also extended to the Ministry of Justice, to formulate legislative and regulatory proposals.
Increased checks during the holidays
For now, an increase in checks has already been decided, for travel during the holidays and also at night. It is in fact, it was at night that the latest tragedies took place, such as that of the 18-year-old Francesco Valdiserrirun over and killed by a car while walking on the sidewalk in Rome, and of Miriam Ciobanu, the 22-year-old student hit by a car in the Treviso area. Last weekend, the Observatory of Asaps (the association of friends and supporters of the traffic police) counted 4 serious accidents at night, with 6 dead and 6 injured, while since June there have been 734 victims on the roads during the weekend. Among them two 18-year-old Romans who collided with a refrigerated truck on a moped last Saturday dawn. On the road, on average, 8 people die every day. The Aci-Istat data for the first half of this year show a marked increase in accidents and victims: after the collapse in the acute period of Covid, in six months there were 81,437 serious accidents with 1,450 deaths (15% more than to the same period of the previous year) and nearly 110,000 injured (25.7% more).