Phnom Penh Post, Issue 15 / 18, September 8 - 20, 2006
The government has drafted a new Land Traffic Law with draconian penalties that, if enforced, could radically alter Cambodia's anarchic road behavior, reduce the country's huge road-death toll - and perhaps have prisons and state coffers overflowing.
The draft law specifies that:
Chum Iek, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) told the Post on August 30 that he will send the draft Land Traffic Law to the National Assembly this month after the Ministry of Justice has examined the proposed penalties.
"We don't want car drivers, motorbike riders or the traffic police to be ignorant of the law and create anarchy in the streets," Iek said. "This has caused Cambodia have the highest road accident rate of any country in the ten member ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asia Nations]."
He said the standards foreshadowed in the draft law are similar to those of other ASEAN countries in the requirements for traffic signs, traffic lights, speed limits, right of way, standard of road manners, and penalties.
"Many drivers have ignored the traffic law and caused [the country] to have the highest road rate accident [in ASEAN], therefore we should have a strict law that can help to reduce road accidents," Iek said.
"We know that when the law is passed by the National Assembly and enforced it will affect many people, especially taxi drivers or remorques [long trailers pulled by motorbikes]."
He said traffic police would have a lot of work to do to stop anarchy on the roads in order to save the lives of people and animals, and to protect the environment. People who broke the law would be imprisoned.
The draft law has 87 articles. It has been reviewed by the standing committee of the National Assembly, and a two-day workshop in August sought feedback from civil society.
Pea Kim Vong, Land Route Assistant to Handicap International, told the Post on September 4 that Handicap International has been involved in a traffic law education campaign since 2002, and has found that many people don't understand traffic laws because many motorbike drivers don't have driving licenses.
Vong said the existing traffic law is inadequate and has not been enforced.
He said the number of people suffering from accidents in Cambodia has increased by 3 percent each year.
He said that in 2005 on average three people were killed on roads every day, but in the first six months of 2006 this had increased to four deaths daily. The figures come from road accident statistics compiled from public hospitals, traffic police and the Ministry of Interior and audited by Handicap International.
He said 1,784 road accidents were reported in 2004 and this increased to 2,035 in 2005.
Vong said it had been estimated road accidents cost the Cambodian economy $116 million a year.
"We found that many Cambodian people do not understand the traffic law, the law is not enforced and people have no respect for it," Vong said.
Opposition parliamentarian Son Chhay said there were many causes of road accidents: many roads lacked traffic signs, many cars were right-hand-drive and unfit for Cambodia's roads, and amoral powerful people did not respect speed limits.
Bad cops as well as bad drivers face heavy penalties. Article 68 of the new draft law says that traffic police and other agents in charge of traffic who use their position to illegally confiscate driving licenses, number plates, or ownership licenses, or to impound vehicles, shall be jailed for between six days and one month or be fined 25,000 to 200,000 riel.
If a vehicle is damaged or stolen while detained by traffic police, those responsible must pay the cost.
Officials who extort or levy illegal fines, receive money without receipt or give fraudulent receipts shall be imprisoned for from one to three years or fined between two million and four million riel.
The draft law says a person who drives when his or her license has expired or has been suspended shall be jailed for between six days and one month or fined between 25,000 and 200,000 riel.
A driver who operates a vehicle using a number plate, driving license or ownership license knowing it to be fraudulent shall be jailed for between one year and three years or fined between two million and six million riel.
Those who forge fraudulent documents for driving shall be jailed for between five and 10 years.
A driver found to have drunk alcohol over the legal limit shall be jailed for between six days and six months or be fined between 25,000 and one million riel.
The draft law says there will be different categories of driving licenses and the driving licenses must be issued by the MPWT. Driving licenses will require an eye check, which must be reviewed every three or five years, depending on the category of driving license.
Keo Savin, the MPWT's Deputy Director of Land Transport in charge of traffic law education and licensing could not be reached for comment.
The draft law specifies that:
- all car drivers and motorbike drivers must have valid driving licenses and vehicle licenses;
- car drivers and their passengers must wear safety belts;
- motorcyclists and their passengers must wear helmets:
- vehicles must not carry passengers for whom there are no seats;
- driving drunk is forbidden.
Chum Iek, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport (MPWT) told the Post on August 30 that he will send the draft Land Traffic Law to the National Assembly this month after the Ministry of Justice has examined the proposed penalties.
"We don't want car drivers, motorbike riders or the traffic police to be ignorant of the law and create anarchy in the streets," Iek said. "This has caused Cambodia have the highest road accident rate of any country in the ten member ASEAN [Association of Southeast Asia Nations]."
He said the standards foreshadowed in the draft law are similar to those of other ASEAN countries in the requirements for traffic signs, traffic lights, speed limits, right of way, standard of road manners, and penalties.
"Many drivers have ignored the traffic law and caused [the country] to have the highest road rate accident [in ASEAN], therefore we should have a strict law that can help to reduce road accidents," Iek said.
"We know that when the law is passed by the National Assembly and enforced it will affect many people, especially taxi drivers or remorques [long trailers pulled by motorbikes]."
He said traffic police would have a lot of work to do to stop anarchy on the roads in order to save the lives of people and animals, and to protect the environment. People who broke the law would be imprisoned.
The draft law has 87 articles. It has been reviewed by the standing committee of the National Assembly, and a two-day workshop in August sought feedback from civil society.
Pea Kim Vong, Land Route Assistant to Handicap International, told the Post on September 4 that Handicap International has been involved in a traffic law education campaign since 2002, and has found that many people don't understand traffic laws because many motorbike drivers don't have driving licenses.
Vong said the existing traffic law is inadequate and has not been enforced.
He said the number of people suffering from accidents in Cambodia has increased by 3 percent each year.
He said that in 2005 on average three people were killed on roads every day, but in the first six months of 2006 this had increased to four deaths daily. The figures come from road accident statistics compiled from public hospitals, traffic police and the Ministry of Interior and audited by Handicap International.
He said 1,784 road accidents were reported in 2004 and this increased to 2,035 in 2005.
Vong said it had been estimated road accidents cost the Cambodian economy $116 million a year.
"We found that many Cambodian people do not understand the traffic law, the law is not enforced and people have no respect for it," Vong said.
Opposition parliamentarian Son Chhay said there were many causes of road accidents: many roads lacked traffic signs, many cars were right-hand-drive and unfit for Cambodia's roads, and amoral powerful people did not respect speed limits.
Bad cops as well as bad drivers face heavy penalties. Article 68 of the new draft law says that traffic police and other agents in charge of traffic who use their position to illegally confiscate driving licenses, number plates, or ownership licenses, or to impound vehicles, shall be jailed for between six days and one month or be fined 25,000 to 200,000 riel.
If a vehicle is damaged or stolen while detained by traffic police, those responsible must pay the cost.
Officials who extort or levy illegal fines, receive money without receipt or give fraudulent receipts shall be imprisoned for from one to three years or fined between two million and four million riel.
The draft law says a person who drives when his or her license has expired or has been suspended shall be jailed for between six days and one month or fined between 25,000 and 200,000 riel.
A driver who operates a vehicle using a number plate, driving license or ownership license knowing it to be fraudulent shall be jailed for between one year and three years or fined between two million and six million riel.
Those who forge fraudulent documents for driving shall be jailed for between five and 10 years.
A driver found to have drunk alcohol over the legal limit shall be jailed for between six days and six months or be fined between 25,000 and one million riel.
The draft law says there will be different categories of driving licenses and the driving licenses must be issued by the MPWT. Driving licenses will require an eye check, which must be reviewed every three or five years, depending on the category of driving license.
Keo Savin, the MPWT's Deputy Director of Land Transport in charge of traffic law education and licensing could not be reached for comment.
4 comments:
You should pass this law for public safety. And Welcome to Earth!
Please make sure that this law applies for all Cambodian included Hun Sen family and his cronies.
I don't know why the Cambodian government waited so long just to pass traffic safety laws until it costs Cambodia economy $116 million a year!
Now do you think that by passing the following laws will solve the traffic safety problems in Cambodia? I will be the first person to tell you that it will not solve the traffic safety problem! Here are some of my reasons!
First Cambodia is lawless country and who give a fuck! All the government lawmakers drive a car like a maniac because all the poor Cambodian people got to make way for these bastards! If any poor Cambodian people hit one of the car belong to government officials car and poor Cambodian people will pay for it whether it is right or wrong!
Second, Cambodia has too many dangerous roads! I wouldn't never in my whole life would drive in many of these so called roads! I honestly believe that it is the fucken roads that killed many Cambodian people not human behavior! These Cambodian roads are a fucken deathtrap!
Third, Many of stupid Cambodian roads don't even have fucken road signs to warn people of danger such as curve, merge,ped-xing,rail road crossing,speed limit, right of way...! There are no proper road markings to show clear division of the flow of traffic! There are no fucken traffic signals to control the movement of traffic! There are no clear physical division between pedestrian traffic and vehicle traffic!
Fourth, What about the financial responsibility for the person who cause damage!
Fifth, Cambodian need more roads and better roads to reduce the congestion that cause many of the accidents!
Now let talk about the penalty and the fine for violating these laws!
These laws focus too much on penalty and fine on poor Cambodian people too much! It would be helpful if these laws give Cambodian people some options to pay fine, do community service or go to traffic safety school to help them become a better driver through education! Majority of the Cambodian population are simple farmers and very illiterate!
These laws are designed to make money on poor illiterate Cambodian people! From now on Cambodian police will be too busy writing out traffic citation to make money and won't have enough time to chase after the real criminal!
( Nowaday most advance countries used cameras to catch people violating traffic laws and the police are free to go after criminals!)
These traffic laws should help educate Cambodian people to become a better drivers through education and rehabilitation and not through hefty fine and sentences! If AH HUN SEN government lockup Cambodian people up to 3years for violating a simple traffic law and soon it can cost Cambodian economy more than $116 million dollars a year! What can I say! AH HUN SEN don't even drive a car and how the fuck he knows what is going on and how these new traffic laws will have unintended consequence on Cambodian people and Cambodian economy!
12:33PM,
You hit the nail on the head. Your concerns are genuine. Wouldn't it be nice if the revenue generate by the fees -- use to improve road condition. Wouldn't it be nice if the CPP returned all of the embezzlement money to improve our basic needs.
But, again, what are the chances these bastards ever thought of the Khmer Society?
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