INTRANT, LMD, and Fedomu promote actions to strengthen road safety in municipalities

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Municipal League (LMD), together with the National Institute of Transit and Terrestrial Transportation (INTRANT) and the Dominican Federation of Municipalities (Fedomu), with the support of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (MESCyT) and the National Institute of Technical Professional Training (Infotep), inaugurated the Congress “Municipality and Road Safety: For Safer Cities”, aimed at the mayors of the country, with the aim of strengthening the role of local governments in improving road safety management, through different strategies and fundamental tools that can be applied at the local level to generate safer road spaces that avoid the risks of accidents. This congress is held within the framework of the Dominican Municipalism Week organized by the Dominican Municipal League, bringing together national experts on key issues such as prevention, planning, and monitoring of road safety. The opening act was led by the president of the LMD, Víctor D’Aza; the executive director of INTRANT, Milton Morrison; and the president of Fedomu, Nelson Núñez. The president of the LMD, Víctor D’Aza, emphasized that “it is no coincidence that, within the framework of Dominican Municipalism Week, we have decided to prioritize road safety as a central theme.

We recommend reading:Collective ensures strike is almost 100% fulfilled in SFM; warns it could extend to 48 hours

The President of the Republic, Luis Abinader, has set a clear goal: to reduce road accident fatalities by 50% by the year 2030; from here we firmly state that this goal will not be achieved solely from the central level. It will be achieved, without a doubt, with the sustained leadership from the territories and the participation of local authorities.” The executive director of INTRANT, Milton Morrison, highlighted the urgency of strengthening road safety from the local level, pointing out that the country faces a critical reality, with an average of eight daily deaths due to traffic accidents. In that sense, he presented a joint proposal with the Dominican Municipal League (LMD) and Fedomu to incorporate road safety indicators into the Municipal SISMAP, which will allow measuring, organizing, and enhancing the actions carried out by the city councils, aligned with the national goal of reducing deaths from this cause by 50%. Likewise, he announced the draft Technical Regulation for Local Road Safety Plans, which establishes levels of implementation, training, and technical support according to the reality of each local government. The initiative, currently in public consultation, seeks to consolidate a more effective management adapted to the reality of each municipality. The president of Fedomu, Nelson Núñez, stated that “this Congress of Municipality and Road Safety is a starting point to move from concern to action: local planning, road education, responsible use of helmets and tracking systems that allow us to save lives, for this reason from Fedomu we support and work with any action that helps us save lives.” At the closing of this opening act, the city council of Moca, led by its mayor Miguel Ángel Guarocuya Cabral, was recognized as the first local government to develop the road safety plan for this municipality. Among the fundamental tools that will be socialized to strengthen municipal road safety policies are: local road safety plans, promotion of responsible helmet use, incorporation of indicators in the Municipal SISMAP, coexistence and community road education.