Washington
19 January 2010
Cambodia’s road accidents have killed more people than countries in the region, claiming more than 1,600 lives annually and are on the rise, a traffic police official said Thursday.
“The figures that we have received are worrying,” said Pol. Maj. Chev Hak, deputy chief of Phnom Penh municipality police, on Hello VOA. “The rates of road accidents are still high compared to other countries in the region.”
Cambodia recorded 10,015 accidents that killed 1,638 people in 2008 due to over-speed driving, drunk driving, violation of rights of way, and not respecting traffic signs.
“Nationwide the number of traffic accidents has increased steadily by six percent annually since 2006,” said Chev Hak.
However, in the country’s capital Phnom Penh, where some two million people reside the number of road accidents, has reduced slightly.
In 2009, there were 639 cases reported with 210 people dead, a slight decrease compared to 2008 where 700 cases were reported with 266 people killed.
“It is important that drivers should not drink alcohol,” said Meas Chandy, another guest speaker from Handicap International Belgium, a non-governmental organization that provides technical support to Cambodian police and traffic education to Cambodians.
“The figures that we have received are worrying,” said Pol. Maj. Chev Hak, deputy chief of Phnom Penh municipality police, on Hello VOA. “The rates of road accidents are still high compared to other countries in the region.”
Cambodia recorded 10,015 accidents that killed 1,638 people in 2008 due to over-speed driving, drunk driving, violation of rights of way, and not respecting traffic signs.
“Nationwide the number of traffic accidents has increased steadily by six percent annually since 2006,” said Chev Hak.
However, in the country’s capital Phnom Penh, where some two million people reside the number of road accidents, has reduced slightly.
In 2009, there were 639 cases reported with 210 people dead, a slight decrease compared to 2008 where 700 cases were reported with 266 people killed.
“It is important that drivers should not drink alcohol,” said Meas Chandy, another guest speaker from Handicap International Belgium, a non-governmental organization that provides technical support to Cambodian police and traffic education to Cambodians.
14 comments:
Road rule is important. Traffic in Phnom Penh is crazy and all motorists alike are careless about accident or own life.
im sure most are careless accidents, but how about intentional drive hits killing ?
Ask for the ROOT of the problem?
Why people, specially young people drive like crazy?
There is no discipline and no education!
When I speak about education I mean the education of the parents to their children.
Basic social education!!!!
Every dog or other animal get this from their parents.
In Cambodia most children grow up without any education, even the basic one!
With 12 years parents start to let them work so they bring money home.
Again, NOT all parents like this but MORE than 50% in Cambodia. To be poor is not an excuse for this!
Guess now why other countries are looking down on Cambodian people?
The young cat learn from its mother cat how to take care for its body and be clean.
Most Cambodians do not learn this.
Like chicken,like hen!
The result will be that other people with discipline take over the Business in Cambodia.
I do not see anybody who could change this in Cambodia. More educated people running away to Long Beach and other places.
Basic social behavior!
A few NGOs start for help but its a drop in an Ocean.
My advice:
Start to learn Chinese!
And whose fault is that? I once witnessed my own eyes when I was in Cambodia, the student driver and her instructor was driving on the wrong side of the street.
I did not have to visit the DMV there to get my Cambodia driver's license, I just pay $100 to the Gopher, and I got my License delivered to my hotel.
A person don't really need an education to learn how to drive safely. All one need is common sense.
Common Sense had die and no one seem to noticed it.
We love death more than life. Unless we reverse this improper out look on life, we will continue to let our "karma" dictate our future.
What hopeless beings we are. Well, I'm glad not all of us have the "me" first mentality. One sinner can destroy much. Our wound is incurable. We are a laughing stock to our neighbors with our behaviors.
hunsen's nephew driving crazy, don't forget the rich kids threatning officer on its traffic tickets. the 90% cause of death on the road.
I am not surprised by all the death count? This is how the Cambodian government runs the country! The population behavior is only reflecting their government behavior!
By the way I wouldn't call it a road because the roads are so fucken small more like an alley! Who ever build these fucken roads and they build it to kill people!
These fucken roads are inherently dangerous!
One cause of the death is caused by intentional killing. The accident just injured a person, but the driver ran his car to finish that person. The life in Cambodia is so cheap, cheaper than the dog. The police is never able to arrest that person and sometimes help to protect the cruel guy. It is because of the system and the leader that do not value their citizens. It did happen with my cousin.
The other reason is that ineffective law enfforcement. I saw a person who did not wear helmate, stoping the motor near the police during the trafic light, but the police just ignored. It is just one small simple example. There are many other tradegic examples. It is because of the system and the leaders too.
So dont wonder that many people dont want to live under this stupid regime.
ordinary people in still need a lot of education to understand the safety and danger of driving drunk, driving eratic, not obey traffic law, and so on. until people respect the traffic law and be cautious, there are more traffic accident death, i'm sure. people need a lot of education. keep drilling them and perhaps require them to take a driving exam before they are given their driver's license in cambodia, really! hey any education is better than none, really!
traffic law still weak....
have to be stric..personal cant negociate with personal .....
law have to do it....who is right who is wrong..not just pay money and go..
Hello,
seems nobody here understand when I talk about the
ROOT OF THE PROBLEM!!!
One person write:
The population behavior is only reflecting their government behavior!
I am sorry but it is OPPOSITE!
The Government behavior reflect the Population behavior!
As long as the children under 10 Years do not learn their lesson NOTHING will change in Cambodia.
Unfortunately "time is running out"!
You already can see that a lot of Business is taken from Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese People in Cambodia.
Why?
Because the Cambodian People are not able to run the Business.
See the Reality.
Only the People who are able to change their behavior have a chance for a better live. They teach their children the right things so they can compete later with Others.
However
most of the Cambodians will never be more than "Working-Slaves" for the rich and powerful.
It do not make a difference if your Master is Cambodian, Thai or Vietnamese. Slave is slave!
It was like this in the world since more than 1.000 Years and it will be the same in the future.
Donot be jealous about Thai People. 80% of the Business in Thailand is controlled by the Chinese People because they are more clever than Thai People.
Accept Reality and do the best not to be a fool like most people!
Do not complain about your Government, make up a better life for your Family!
unless people wake up and start seeing the bigger world out there, they are ignorant, to say the least! nothing is absolute anymore, even power, nowadays, people can see and will vote you out of office if you don't show good leadership or being too abusive, etc. people have to change, otherwise, when people see that they are bad, i'm sure nobody will come near them or even follow in their footsteps. yes, only time will tell. keep an open-mind, though. get rid of that no good outdated thinking, etc... only keep them if they are good examples, etc... that's called getting educated and learn to think for yourself, ok!
To 12:48PM
Oh God! I understand too well in what the hell you are talking about! Here you are talking about education, enslavement, and ability to do business...
When you are talking about education in Cambodia then you are talking about corrupted teachers who extorted money from students and most these teachers even have a second jobs just to support their family and as for the student parent who are dirt poor and they barely make enough for one day just to put food on the table! Now the teachers become a babysitter and the student parent become the working slave!
The question why dirt poor Cambodian only attract to slave working condition is because there is no other option beside the slave working condition to make a living!
The question why dirt poor Cambodian don't know how to run or manage business is because nobody show them how to do it! Nobody born with the knowledge to run the business and the art of doing business must be learnt and must be learnt from the right people especially the one who had been in business already! And the fucken Cambodian educational system under Hun Sen leadership is not doing anything to help either beside passing out diploma or what have you.
It is all come down to having right education, good law to promote fair competition and good regulation to promote the business environment.
The stupid Cambodian government can be part of the problem or be part of the solution!
there are a lot of skepticism here. i mean, skepticism exists everywhere, even in academia. the only thing here is that some people tend to mix them up with gov't, ineffectiveness and so on. don't they know everything has their place and you can't just mix them all up and murky the reality, here, ok! people everywhere need to talk, communicate, brainstorming, etc more and more. otherwise, they will always misunderstand one another due to whatever reason or argument they may have, really!
Post a Comment