Minister says that new roads “will save many lives”

THE Balearic Minister for Public Works, Housing and Transport, Mabel Cabrer, has said that she is convinced that the improvement of the road infrastructures will contribute to reducing the rising number of traffic accidents in the islands, and to “saving many lives”. Replying yesterday to a question by the Balearic MP Margalida Rossello, the Minister said that on the new Llucmajor road, which was opened a year ago, there had not been one single accident, which demonstrates that “the improvement of the roads contributes to a reduced accident rate”. This is an opinion which is in direct contrast to that of Margalida Rossello, who criticised the Government's roads policy as, according to her, bigger roads mean greater speeds and “it will not help to solve anything”. She added that what the Government ought to do is raise safety standards on the roads on the islands, something to which the “motorways” had not contributed. Cabrer, who dismissed Rossello's remarks as “ridiculous”, said that experts in the field had said that “separating the two directions of traffic” is one of the most important measures to reduce danger on the roads, which, she added, is precisely what the Balearic Government is doing.