There were more deaths on the roads of Phnom Penh in 2008 compared to 2007, despite a lower number of traffic accidents being reported to police, officials said Monday.
A total of 700 accidents were reported during 2008 compared to 844 accidents in 2007, but data shows 49 more deaths occurred in 2008, Phnom Penh municipal police chief Touch Naruth said Monday during a City Hall meeting.
“The problem we have been facing is that the authorities don’t have full ability to curb the serious forms of accidents caused by drunk drivers and over-speeding, because we are short of equipment,” he said.
About 40 percent of the accidents are caused by speeding and 13 percent caused by drunk drivers, he said, adding that Russei Keo, Daun Penh, Dangkao and Chamkar Mon are the most dangerous districts for drivers, accounting for 539 out of the 700 accidents reported.
So far in 2009, statistics have been collected for the six-day celebrations of the Chinese and Vietnamese New Year which showed a 20 percent drop in accidents compared to 2008, according to a report released Monday by the Interior Ministry’s national police.
Police recorded 166 accidents in 2009 killing 31 people and seriously injuring 140, the report said, compared to 207 accidents during celebrations in 2008 killing 46.
The national police report also included numbers of motorbike drivers fined for not wearing helmets. Since Jan 1, when the new helmet law was implemented, 1,913 motorbike drivers have been stopped and fined, pulling in 2,352,000 riel, or about $588, for the state, which comes to an average fine of just more than 1,200 riel.
Touch Naruth said the statistics showed that the helmet law has made a difference.
An estimated 80 percent of motorbike drivers wear helmets today, he said.
