Traffic accidents killed 1,717 people in Cambodia last year, a 5 percent increase from 2008, a Road Crash and Victim Information System report released Friday said.
However, fatalities decreased 6 percent during the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2009, Him Yan, director of the Interior Ministry’s public order department said.
During the first semester “in 2009, 934 people died but in 2010 908 people died,” Mr Yan said.
To continue the downward trend the National Committee on Safety-including officials from the ministries of public works and transport, interior, justice, health, education and finance-are hoping to complete a draft amendment to the traffic law next month, he said.
Proposals include rising the fine for not wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle from 3,000 [$0.75] to 20,000 riel [$5] and making helmets compulsory for passengers, added said.
An average of 4.7 people died per day during 2009 that saw 21,519 reported annual road crash casualties including 7,022 severe injuries, according to the RCVIS report by NGO Handicap International Belgium and the ministries of Interior, Health and Public Works and Transport.
“The increase in fatalities was indirectly caused by the increase in vehicles, population and road infrastructure so more people traveled on the roads,” Sann Socheata, road safety program manager at Handicap International Belgium, said yesterday, noting the direct causes were increased speeding and drunk driving.
Fatalities against vehicle numbers are higher in Cambodia than other Asean countries because law enforcement is lower and helmets are less widely used, Ms Socheata said.
During 2009 the fatality rate per 10,000 registered vehicles was 12.3 in Cambodia compared to 8.6 in Lao and 3.5 in Vietnam, the RCVIS report said.
About 70 percent of fatalities in Cambodia during 2009 were motorcycle riders with three quarters suffering head injuries, it said.
Traffic accidents have a large socio-economic impact on the country and cost an estimated $248 million in 2009, according to a study by Handicap International Belgium and the Institute of Mobility – Hasselt University in Belgium.
