The Government plans to invest 10 million euros in removing black spots on the roads, announced the Minister of Internal Administration, guaranteeing that there will be no shortage of money, as long as the local authorities have the capacity to execute.
“We have already planned an estimated investment of 10 million euros, so that there is execution capacity on the part of the municipalities to prepare diagnoses of municipal risks and thus have the capacity to contract with the ministry and then develop them. It will not be for lack of financial means that we will stop removing many black spots”, said José Luis Carneiro on the sidelines of a ceremony in Porto.
The government official was speaking to journalists at the end of the public presentation of the operational results of the PSP and GNR, which reveal an increase in crime in three areas, including road accidents.
Recalling that “a percentage” of the revenue from conventional and automatic speed control, known as radars, will be used to finance the removal of “black spots” on the roads, the minister acknowledged that accident numbers are still “very high” despite Portugal managed to reduce “the number of deaths and serious injuries” by “more than 80%” between 1986 and 2019.
Refusing to say what percentage of revenues will come from fines or the execution period for investments in the area of prevention and road safety, José Luís Carneiro detailed that three intervention priorities have been defined: the reinforcement of conventional road inspection and automatic; the removal of black spots and the reinforcement of post-accident response capacity, namely through the purchase of extrication vehicles and their pre-placement in regions where there is a greater risk of accidents.
Indicating that this is a multi-annual objective, José Luís Carneiro explained that, with regard to the elimination of black spots on the roads, the planned investments cover qualification programs for municipal and national roads, particularly in the areas of public lighting, crossings and separators of roads, among others, interventions that, he highlighted, “guarantee higher levels of safety”.
“None of us like radar, but radar, in fact, is an important form of speed control to save lives. Last year, 470 people died on Portuguese roads and we had 2.300 seriously injured,” he said, adding that there are other measures that take longer to implement.
In the closing speech of the operational report, the Minister of Internal Administration pointed out speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and the use of cell phones as the three main causes of road accidents, comparing the number of deaths to the crash of two planes a day. .
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