The tragedies on our roads continue with yet another horrendous accident last Friday at Conversation Tree along the Rupert Craig Highway which resulted in yet another senseless and preventable loss of life and several others injured. This followed the death of a 12-year old on Sherriff Street only a few days before.
Like in all human tragedies and disasters, the trauma and emotional suffering of the children and close victims are agonising and immeasurable and no doubt will leave an indelible psychological scar.
For a country with a small population, the number of road accidents and fatalities is extremely high and on a per capita basis we would perhaps be among the countries with the highest rates of road accidents. This problem has been plaguing us for a very long time and the rate at which more vehicles are coming on to the roads the likelihood of seeing a reduction is grim, especially when one examines the trend globally with respect to road accidents.
Over 1.2 million people die in road accidents and between 20 and 50 million people get injured every year around the globe.
This startling fact was revealed recently in the Global Status Report on Road Safety released by the World Health Organisation. The survey was conducted in 2008 in 178 countries, covering 98% of the population.
The survey also found: over 90% of accident deaths occur in low and middle income countries. These countries only have 48% of the world’s vehicles.
* 50% of people who die in road accidents are pedestrians, cyclists and motorbike users.
* The highest number of deaths is among young people.
* Very few countries have and enforce laws on speed, drunk driving, use of helmets, use of seatbelts, etc.
* The estimated cost of accidents to governments’ worldwide is $518 billion.
* In the U.S., 40,000 people die and 3 million get injured in road accidents every year.
But what do these statistics mean?
The road accidents create an economic and workforce burden on the health care system. In many countries, the health care systems are already under-funded and understaffed.
This also mean that much needs to be done by governments to make and properly enforce laws and measures to improve road safety.
Roads need to be constructed in such a way that different types of road users, like cars, bikes, cycles and pedestrians are separated.
According to WHO, there are four main areas which need to be worked on to improve road safety.
* Enforcement of road rules.
* Understanding crashes and risks.
* Admission of road users (car and driving licensing)
* Education and information
Working on these areas will help reduce speeds and make vehicles and roads safer. This will in turn reduce road accidents.
In our case one of the more difficult problems to tackle is the issue of poor driving attitudes. There is hardly any respect and observance of laws and there is an obsession with speeding. There are so many drivers on our roads who seem to be always in a hurry and this obviously is a fertile ground for a road accident to happen.
However, it should be noted that the lawlessness on our roads is part of a general lawlessness and break down of discipline in our society as could be observed in other aspects of life such as the disposal of garbage, playing of loud music, use of loud and discourteous language, cursing, disrespect for adult and senior citizens, etc.
Until and unless we reorient our people towards a positive, disciplined and healthy attitude within which there is a deep sense of responsibility and respect for laws and rules the tragedies on the roads and elsewhere will continue to be a serious problem in our society.
In this regard we could perhaps lean on the Singaporean experience.