“We are very committed to ensuring that 2026 is the year of the approval of the National Road Safety Strategy, which has been pending implementation since 2020 or 2021,” said the Secretary of State for Civil Protection, Rui Rocha, at the presentation of the Christmas and New Year campaign of the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR).

This strategy should have already been approved in 2020, but this has not yet happened, despite having been presented by the previous Socialist government. Rui Rocha indicated that in recent months the ANSR (National Road Safety Authority) and the Road Safety Council have reviewed the strategy and stated that, at the beginning of next year, the document should be put into legislative circulation within the Government so that it can be approved “in the shortest possible time”.

According to the Secretary of State, “priority and short-term measures” have already been identified, reducing the strategy from approximately 150 intervention actions.

“Having a plan with 140 or 150 actions and not knowing which one to start with and which is most important, I think, can distract us from the focus. Therefore, what we did was identify a set of priority actions that, regardless of the speed with which we can get the National Road Safety Strategy approved, we can start implementing on the ground, because that is the most important thing,” he explained.

Among these measures, he highlighted that all municipalities should have municipal road safety plans and that the citizenship subject should incorporate the topic of road safety.

When questioned by journalists about whether the strategy would maintain measures included in the document by the Socialist Party government, the minister said that they are being used, but expressed surprise that they were not approved by the previous executive.

Rui Rocha also said that the Traffic Code will be "revisited," explaining: "We are very committed, not as a mere punctual change, but to look at the Traffic Code and see if it is adequate. To carry out this reflection in a comprehensive way."

The National Road Safety Strategy - Vision Zero 2030 aims to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries by 50% by 2030.