Road Safety Week Designed To Cut Traffic Fatalities

Cambodia’s first-ever Road Safety Week, organized by the Trans­port Ministry’s National Road Safety Committee, was launched Saturday in an effort to curb the high rate of traffic accidents during the upcoming Khmer New Year and in general nationwide, officials said.

Over the three-day stretch of Khmer New Year in 2006 nearly four times as many people died dai­ly in traffic accidents than on an aver­age day that year, said So­cheata Sann, Handicap Inter­national Bel­gium’s program manager.

Forty-six people died and 816 were injured in traffic accidents over the 2006 New Year, she said. On average last year, four people died and 100 were injured in road casualties each day, said Chum Iek, secretary of state for the Trans­port Ministry.

“[Road] casualties increase by 15 percent every year,” he added.

Road Safety Week, which is mo­deled after similar safety weeks the UN has orchestrated globally in the past, featured a ceremony on Saturday to promote the new traffic law, which was signed by King Norodom Sihamoni in February, said Ung Chun Huor, director-general at the Transport Ministry.

The new law requires all motorbike drivers to wear a helmet as well as possess a driver’s license, So­cheata Sann said. It also clearly lists penalties for drunk driving that range from fines of about $1.50 to $250 or six months in jail, she added.

 

Related Stories

Latest News