Traffic tells all in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh ... motorbikes carrying several passengers are a common sight. Photograph: Chor Sokunthea/Reuters

Despite a crash, some Cambodian passengers remain stylishly unflappable

Tuesday 15 February 2011
Daniel Murphy
Guardian Weekly

Everything you want to know about Cambodia's city society is found in the traffic of Phnom Penh – social conformity mixed with anarchic individualism, the confidence of young Cambodian women, the indifference of the police, the motorbike as an extra limb attached to the body, the inability of old cultural ways to cope with the modern world.

It's a cool Friday afternoon of around 20C. I am nearing home on my city cycle and stop at traffic lights but, as usual, not everyone wants to stop.

A scooter, liveried in shocking pink and white, follows a couple of other bikes into the opposite lane and rounding us all, crashes the red light and bullies its way into the deep stream of motorbikes swarming south. There are only two passengers on the seat behind the woman driver. They are also young women, with a haughty, sassy style.

They sit side-saddle, perfectly aware of how they look with their short skirts, right legs crossed over left and high heels hanging suspended in mid-air. For all the world they could be sitting on a park bench. One is checking her nails. The other is sweeping her waist-length hair over her shoulder.

The scooter forces its way into the centre of the traffic stream and we obedient citizens who stopped at the lights watch it crash, in slow motion, into another bike that swerved to avoid an SUV on the wrong side of the road.

Over 93,000 motorized vehicles impounded by Cambodian police in August

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 2 (Xinhua) -- More than 93,000 motorcycles and cars were impounded in August in nationwide operations since the start of strict enforcement of new traffic laws, local media reported on Wednesday, citing police officials.

Lieutenant-General Ouk Kimlek, deputy commissioner of the National Police and deputy chairman of the National Road Safety Committee, was quoted by the Cambodia Daily as saying on Tuesday that the police confiscated 92,283 motorcycles and l,089 cars since August l.

The most common offense in 39,727 cases was not having mirrors on motorcycles, followed by drivers not wearing helmets in 38,907 cases. Another reason for motorcycle confiscation was the lack of registration taxes, especially in Siem Reap, Banteay Meanchey and Preah Sihanouk provinces.

Him Yan, deputy director of the National Police public order department, said that between July 10 and August 10 traffic casualties and accidents decreased by 15 percent over the previous month to 101 fatalities. He said that so far only 562 motorcycles nationwide are still impounded, awaiting their owners to pay the required tax and register for a license plate.

Sann Socheata, road safety manager for Handicap International Belgium, however, said it was too early for the organization to say if the police operation has decreased the number of road accidents but that, in general, greater police vigilance about the laws of the road is a good thing.

"Speeding and drunk driving are the two main reasons for road traffic accidents," she added.

CRC youths must jot down car license plates contravening the law: Chumteav No. 1

Chumteav No. 1. Who are Chumteav No. 2, No. 3, etc…? ;-)

Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Rasmei Kampuchea
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Chumteav Bun Rany Hun Xen, president of the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC), told CRC youths, who are stationed along a number of roadsides in Phnom Penh to direct traffic and prevent traffic jams, that they must jot down the license plate number of cars that do not respect the traffic law or if they look down on these CRC youths directing the traffic so that they can be dealt with by the law, irrespective of their ranks in the government.

Chumteav Bun Rany Hun Xen said, during a meeting for the distribution of uniforms to CRC youths in Phnom Penh in the morning of 25 August, that all CRC youths must strictly apply the traffic law in order to relieve traffic jams, as well as reducing the number of traffic accidents. The chumteav added that in the case any driver does not respect the law, or if any driver looks down on any of the nieces/nephews (CRC youths) who are directing the traffic, these youngsters must jot down the car license plates so that these drivers can be dealt with by the law, irrespective of their government ranking or who the parents of these drivers are.

The chumteav added that the high-ranking government officials respect the law very well, however, those officials who only hold the rank of department directors down, and a small number of sons/daughters of high-ranking officials who depend on their parents’ high-ranking titles, they do not respect the law that much. Nevertheless, the chumteav called on all the drivers to respect the law in order to reduce life-threatening accidents.

Chumteav Bun Rany Hun Xen indicated that, currently, traffic accident is the major issue, therefore, the government ordered that safety helmets be used in order to protect the people lives. The chumteav recognized that the majority of people wear helmets to protect their lives, however, these people wear them mainly in the morning, but they do not do so in the afternoon.