Causes of Traffic Accident in Cambodia

Categories: Traffic

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Traffic Accidents in Cambodia

In fact, traffic accident has made serious problems for Cambodian people and government in Cambodia such as cost government’s money, loss of human resource, and increasing of poverty. The cost of the government’s money included the elimination of vehicles, roads and medical costs. In a year the government spends about $300 million on managing and solving all of those problems. In addition, spending on traffic accidents problems, government reduce the budget for fixe the road, upgrade, and build a new road because of the huge amount of money have to spend on solving traffic accident.

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Furthermore, when our country’s conditions on roads are bad like this, it will decrease the numbers of international tourists visiting Cambodia because of they afraid to feel free to visit if we have an amazing and fantastic Angkor Wat and many interesting places. As you know the economy of the country depends on tourism the most. Tourism is an important sector that finds money for the country.

If the money from this sector has decreased government budget will get low and will not have enough money to spend on. So, everything will get worse and worst. In Cambodian society nowadays, the effects of human resources because of traffic accidents are extremely lost.

According to the national news that has been aired on TV every morning, every night on a weekday and was published in magazines, newspapers, and other media. We always see the news about traffic accidents in Cambodia, especially in Phnom Penh.

Traffic accidents were killed at least 310 people and people who get injured about 1,077 in the first two months of 2019, according to the National Road Safety Committee’s report released on Wednesday (Chakrya, 2019). All the people who were killed, all of them are the resources for supporting and developing Cambodia to become a developed country. Some of them are the students and they were killed. It has shown that we lose the important resources like we have a strong saying “Like father like son”. A traffic accident was a silent murder. It killed all of the people if you are smart, pretty, rich, poor or event you are a king. On the other hand, the terrible result which comes from traffic accidents is increasing in poverty. As you have known, some seriously injured victims need physical improvement services, which need substantial time and expense.

Family of victims needs to spend money on medical treatment and other health-care services with some of the injured needing treatment for more than a year, while others become forever disabled. If you were a person who finds money to support your family and you were died or injured your family has no income and the revenue has been spent. It created a number of difficult results for families and humankind at large. New research has shown that “Traffic accident victims sometimes develop mental illnesses and endure other psychological effects due to loss of body parts and decreased self-image.” In his study, Chakrya found that “Victims who develop serious mental health issues require counseling services, which he described as expensive and often insufficient” (Chakrya, 2019). Some children are orphaned by accidents. For low-income families, the impact is even harsher. Many spend years trying to pay off debts acquire as a result of accidents. The demolition of motorbikes in traffic accidents cost even surviving victims greatly, as they have often sold land.

All of the problems above are attributed to several factors. Human errors are the most serious factors. There are drunk drivers and fast driving. One of the most main problems is the drunk drivers it is usually killing a huge amount of people not only in the city but in the countryside also. All of the drunk drivers they very careless and thoughtless. Even they know violation of land traffic law is needed to pay the fine and can make the accident for them and other people while they driving when drunk. A small thing that we have ignored is talking or playing phones while driving it can also cause the accident too. Fast driving is also one of the main problems to kill people too. The law has limited the speed for all driver includes motorcycle and car but some driver still violates it. (Sarah, 2019) Nowadays, accidents caused by fast driving happened every day. Based on the road traffic accident and victim information system (TRAVIS) pointed out that over 90% of accidents are caused by fast driving specifically along the national roads. Besides human errors and behaviors, another important factor that supplies traffic issues includes the growing urban population, capital development, increasing the number of vehicles…etc. (Vathana, 2019) Nowadays, based on the Phnom Penh capital hall website, the population in Phnom Penh this year 2019 is 2,129,371.

Furthermore, according to data from the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, in 2016, 3.2 million vehicles were registered, 2.7 million were motorbikes. As well as weather conditions, road conditions (unsafe road environments), there are visibility impairment by darkness, slippery surface that referred to external factors uncontrollable by drivers and insufficient driver knowledge. Some of the drivers didn’t know exactly what to do when driving in the rain, a winding road. If the drivers not careful or suddenly speed or brake it actually can make the accident. traffic accidents are often caused by ignorance. Moreover, improper thinking such as believing that it is ok to violate traffic regulations, rushing to get to your destination as long as you do not cause accidents. And wrong driving habits, such as many drivers tend to wrongly believe that their undesirable driving habits do not pose any danger. This belief can reinforce such habits and thus leads to fatal accidents. (KoRoad, 2019) Last but not least, vehicle defects also the causes of traffic accidents too.

To solve the problems of traffic accidents, the government of Cambodia should use these strategies. Setting actions of road safety, improvement of driver’s knowledge, provides material of land traffic law education to all level of people, propose a driving license for all drivers, double fine for who violate the rules and focuses on technical checks in vehicles. According to the Ministry of Interior, National Police Directorate General “Setting up the locomotive to lead the road safety actions with the creation of a National Road Safety Committee and related local committees (provinces and towns).” (2016). For all competent institutions to issue a common policy and important guidelines, these committees will make it possible to assign each competent officer for the performance and checking of the identified actions. All levels of the population, improving and strengthening the quality of road safety education is very important. And focusing on people learning to drive, such as motorbike or bike drivers is important too.

Moreover, control the two factors that caused accidents: human error and vehicle defect by having an effective and complete traffic law and strict enforcement mechanisms. Furthermore, studying, organizing, researching and engineering of the road to improve safety and find new modern technologies to control the traffic. The knowledge of the drivers can be improved by learning in school and through experiences. Land traffic law education should provide materials since secondary school and need the polices official volunteering to teach and explain to middle and old people in the city and provinces. According to the note of the Cambodian Red Cross, “Develop education material for secondary schools as well as first aid strategies and toolkits aimed at improving first response to traffic accidents” (Hum Sophon, 2016). Our sustainable solution is that we propose a motorcycle driver to obtain a driving license. Under the current situation, the motorcycle driver, whose rides are 125cc or less; which represents the majority of the driver in Cambodia, is not required to have a driving license. Driving without common knowledge of traffic rules, which obtain have in order to pass a test, caused utter confusion on streets in Cambodia. Rights and obligations under the Traffic Law are basically crucial for drivers. It is very dangerous as most accident victims are on motorcycles. Even the government promises to increase their campaigns to advertise and teach prudently about the traffic law to the public, especially through radio, television and pictorial banners in public to increase understanding, but problematic and uncertainty about its effectiveness still go on. As those forms of education may not as effective as it assumed, a driving license is possibly the most effective and thorough way to guarantee that drivers have the basic knowledge of traffic rules. The most recent, Cambodian government has dictated a temporary fine by double for those who violate traffic rules such as driving without helmet, driving under the influence, running a stop sign or red light, speeding, in order to reduce traffic incidents and to increase knowledge on traffic issue. Traditionally, the plurality of motorcycles has been defined by private small-engine or impartial mode of transport. Before buying a motorcycle, Cambodia mostly follows some criteria such as low price, ability to carry more than two people, and flexibility that would last for ten or 20 years. If the government focuses on technical checks on the motorbike in order to observe with international standards, the low-income will be accessible (Vathana, 2019). We have a strong quotation from National Police Directorate General “Traffic accident is not an incurable disease. It is sure that traffic accidents can be reduced and full safety be reached.”

As shown above, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death in Cambodia, destroying not only lives but national revenues, property, morale, dignity and development efforts. Moreover, all these problems are caused by humans such as human behavior and error including fast driving and drink driver. Roads and weather conditions also the main causes and defects of vehicles. Sustainable solutions are providing land traffic law education to all levels of people, developing educational material for secondary schools, learning to drive before driving the vehicle for all drivers, studying, organizing and researching the engineering and new modern technologies to improve the safety of road and control the traffic. Furthermore, obtain a driving license for motorcycle and review the policy on used car importation. The government of the Kingdom of Cambodia must have a high commitment to save Cambodian people's lives and to reduce the accidental of Land traffic in Cambodia. In addition, traffic accidents in Cambodia cannot be reduced without the active involvement of the citizens in the country. The government and citizens of Cambodia need to care and get involved together to help and develop Cambodia to become a wonderful and fantastic country.

Causes

Traffic accident is one of the main problems that kill hundreds of people in Cambodia every year. Many people die every day and this is the big concern for the government because they have to spend much money to solve this problem. According to my research and some document that I have read on the internet and other books I found that there are for factor that led traffic accident and now I will tell you in detail about each factor.

Human : The main problem is human error which is one amount other factor that killed a lot of people than other factors. The human error consists of small factor include: Drunk driver is one of the main problems that usually kill a lot of people not only in the city but also countryside. After drinking win people usually drive their vehicle or car and sometime they cannot control their vehicle or car at all and frequently cause accident. Sometime it is not only affect to the person who causes accident but also affect to people who is riding with them and other people that is driving on the road too. Another problem is that when they drive their motor on the road they do not wear helmet.

When we wear helmet when we are driving it is the best way to protect our head because when we met accident by chance but some people think it is not necessary so when they met accident and fell down on the road sometime their head is critically injured when it hit on the ground, grave, and stone. After traffic law in Cambodian is approve we can see that most people they usually wear helmet when they travel on the road but some of them that still not follow the traffic law. They obey the law only when they met with traffic police near the traffic light.

They just put their helmet in front of their motor and they wear it when they met the traffic police. This problem usually happen to teenagers who usually thing that it is not so handsome or they feel like something on their head when they wear it sometime it makes them fell not so attractive for the other teenagers. Human error is responsible for more than 98% of casualties1. Human errors: fast speed, alcohol abuse, not respect right of way, dangerous overtaking, changing lane without due care, driving against flow of traffic, fatigue or illness, not respect traffic light and signs, wrong use of high beams, or improper use of mobile phones.

More than 50% of fatalities were due to speeding while another 18% were caused by alcohol abuse. Crashes resulting from not respecting the right of way and dangerous overtaking occurred more during the daytime than nigh time, but crashes involving alcohol abuse were more of a problem during the night time than daytime. Road and weather conditions are responsible for less than 10% of casualties, while vehicle defect is responsible for only 5% of casualties. Other elements of the cause are lack of traffic law knowledge, no respect for the law.

Fast driving is another factor that cause by human factor. As we can see in Cambodia today even the law has limit the speed for all drivers but some drivers still violate it. Sometime when they drive in the crowded place such as market or some other busy road in provincial town and in the city they do not slow down at all and they do not care about other people that was selling and walking on the road. In the city we usually see teenagers that drive modern car or motor on the road. They usually drive over speed limitation. Moreover, dangerous over taking is usually cause by human themselves.