Happy New Year Everyone!
Back in 2013 working with Mr Brian Holiday DAGA prepared a Road Safety Plan Synopsis for the Government of the Island of Mauritius entitled “What is Road Safety Engineering and How Can it Help to Reduce Road Collisions in Mauritius”. The plan covered all the basics of Road Safety Engineering and made the following Recommendations:-
1/ That the proposed international race track be approved for implementation by the Mauritian Government and that its introduction be utilized to further the cause of Road Safety Education and Training throughout the island through a collaborative approach with the bid team.
2/ That the Mauritian Government commission the bid team to engage the services of DAGA Limited to provide a detailed Road Safety Plan of Action for the island as a whole encompassing a National and Regional Collision Reduction Programme and Strategy to tie in with the UN Decade of Action on Road Safety 2011 – 2020. Such a plan should set targeted reductions in collisions to be achieved by 2020.
3/ That the proposed Road Safety Plan in (2) above target specific road user groups that are over represented in road collisions through a combination of Education, Engineering and Enforcement with particular emphasis on motorcyclists, young drivers and child pedestrians.
4/ That the Mauritian Government commission the bid team to engage the services of DAGA Limited to produce a report of the benefits of Road Safety Audit as a tool towards achieving better collision prevention for new and redesigned road layouts with a view to then providing training and guidance for locally based Road Safety Auditors.
The plan appeared to be well received at the time and here at DAGA we looked forward to extending our Road Safety Engineering expertise to the island with a view to having a major impact on road collisions there which number some 160 fatal collisions per year from a population of just 1.3 million people! However, weeks turned into month and months into years and nothing much happened, then out of the blue just before Christmas 2023 Mr Holiday contacted me to tell me that the new Transport Minister of Mauritius was now keen to see the report updated and implemented. So just after Christmas I met Mr Brian Holiday at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, for dinner and a chat about the new project (see below) it just goes to show that even after many years a project that you thought was over can come back to life again lol 😊
As I look out of my office window the snow is melting on what was something of a blizzard weekend with the 1st February 2019 ushered in with some real winter weather. As such, myself and my family were confined to staying at home and not venturing onto the road network for two days (No School! The children were so disappointed, NOT!). Instead we started with a modern family weekend where everyone sits in the same room but operates their respective I pad or I phone and does not communicate with anyone else by voice! maybe I’m getting old but I eventually managed to break through to my family with the prospect of a log fire and lunch!. After lunch on checking my email I discovered that I had been invited to submit an entry for the forthcoming Mendip Vintage and Classic Tour on 12/05/19. The ‘Mendip Run’ as it is known locally is a tour of classic motor vehicles that takes place every May. This year it will once again be in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support. Considering the freezing cold weather and the fact that such a worthy cause would benefit I filled in my application straight away and rushed down to the post box in the snow to post it to the organisers.
David A Graham Associates 