Foreigner visitors keeping up with Vietnamese traffic standards in Saigon: no helmets, poor mirrors. Picture was taken in November 2006. Now who do these two remind you of? Not this very responsible dream couple from the States?'The accident rate throughout Vietnam is high, and rising. In the first nine months of this year, 9,400 Vietnamese died in accidents - up eight percent over last year.'Just 8 percent?
'Le Sy Hoang works for Asia Injury:So what's different from Cambodia?
'You see the accident rate is increasing, and it seems that drunk driving and running the red light happens all the time, without the enforcement of the police," she said. "The doctor who is in charge of head injury in Viet Duc Hospital, it seems they should be most aware of the problem, but still, it seems that 90 percent of the [doctors] there do not wear a helmet.'
'Government statistics show traffic accidents, the leading cause of death in Vietnam, claim about 12,000 lives every year in the country of 84 million. Some international organizations estimate the actual number is twice as high.'Here, same, same.
'Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City roads teem with speeding motorbikes. Traffic law enforcement is lax. Drivers routinely run red lights and go the wrong way on one-way streets. Very few motorcyclists use helmets and many drivers lack experience, said Greig Craft, president of the Asia Injury Prevention Fund, a nonprofit group that makes low-cost helmets and promotes safe driving.'Thirty percent? So government intervention could result in 3,000-4,000 deaths less per year? So why isn't the Vietnamese government enforcing helmet wearing. It reminds me of last weeks Bangkok Post travel section on the new old tourism campaign called Amazing Thailand. The reporter mentioned that it's amazing that in Thailand during the new year holiday period more than 500 people died in 5 days, more than the death rate in Baghdad, at least on some days. And the bombs in Baghdad got more coverage!
"I would call the traffic situation here an absolute crisis," Craft said. "In the West, if you run a red light, it is culturally unacceptable. But here, the young Vietnamese think it's cool." Craft's group has been working for years to persuade Vietnam to make helmets mandatory, which he says would immediately cut traffic deaths by more than 30 percent.
'It is light brown, the same colour as the uniforms of Vietnam's traffic police, and the inside of the nappy is made of dozens of pockets - each fastened by a police button.'
Clinton, helmets and Vietnamese kids
'The topic of this thread is just one of the pitfalls of a country growing too fast. Certainly, the government will take better control over these situations as it looks to pass a certain plateau of growth in due time. The country is still being "hardwired" for infrastructure. This lack of infrastructure itself is a barrier for many corporations so the government for the moment has no financial incentives to invest money into a fair and just traffic system.This seems to be a bit unfair. Even in countries such as neighbouring Lao (with a one-party system) and Nepal during the 'open' democracy of the 1990's law enforcement especially concerning traffic regulations was and is enforced. This, despite both countries being equally or even poorer than Cambodia now. The notion that more cash is needed before law enforcement can kick-in seems a bit far-fetched (but supposedly supported by the influential clique governing the country). The current system of lack of lawlessness in all sectors of Cambodia favours the rich and those that have positions to defend rather than those in need of protection be it from unscrupulous land-grabbers, nation-robbing politicians or the well-to-do accident prone and hit-and-run rich. Justice is (in essence) for all, lack of law enforcement bears of the poor.
....
When the government begins to see (and hear from investing governments) that the lack of law and its enforcement is a major barrier for the next level of their economic growth, it's my opinion that you'll see major changes over night'.
'Traffic Deaths Rising'.That's todays (25 January 2007) lead on (apparently) the monthly in-depth look at the statistics that the Belgian NGO Handicap collects and the Cambodian Daily dutifully reports to those willing to pay the few riel to buy the local and not-so local news.
'plans to offer a free course for drivers ... to learn about the new traffic law. Motorists must participate in the training course to obtain a license.'
'Travelling West Bound on Bearse Ave going towards Dale Mabry in Tampa, Fl about 3pm. The driver of this 1998 or 1999 Mitsubishi Galant was a white male, age 50-55, dark hair, sunglasses, light color shirt. He wasn't speeding or weaving or doing any of the things most people write about here. He was just DRINKING A BEER!!! Yes MORON!! I called 911 and I hope the Hillsborough County Sheriffs through your old ass in JAIL!! CAN YOU BE ANY MORE STUPID? HOW ABOUT TRYING TO DRIVE BACKWARDS. THAT MIGHT IMPROVE YOUR JUDGEMENT A LITTLE'!!
'Motorcycle cop was driving 40 m.p.h. over the speed limit (approximately) 94 mph without his headlight turned on. I saw his bike parked at the weigh station a few miles up. So, he certainly WAS NOT on a call. Why is it that these cops are allowed to break the law everyday and NOT get tickets yet are able to give tickets to citizens. Makes me sick. He was going too fast for me to see his plate or to get a photograph'.
'As you can see from the photograph, the idiot decides not only to park on a bend, but sticks 90% of the car onto the path too. Not only would this be difficult to get past in a wheelchair or with a pushchair, but its even difficult for a pedestrian to get past. Also, whichever house the car was at, both houses near to where it was parked had empty drives, so it s not as though there was no place else to park'!You can also sort reports by type of incidents ('Mobile phone pratt' or 'MLH: Middle Land Hog'). Oddly enough it also links through to 'speedcam' so you know how not to get a ticket. And to Canadian(!) accident lawyers.
'This SUV was left driverless parked in the bike lane. They were using it as a loading area for the hotel'.
'A Ferrari with a brand new number plate in a disability parking space. Now, I've seen it all. What, other lots are not good enough? Anyway, justice was served: a Parking Attendant issued a parking offence notice. Perhaps the number plate on the car should have given the owner an inkling of the state of his luck'.The reporters are dedicated. One even reports a pile of dirt (in California) on a parking space for the lesser accessible individuals:
'This isn't so much an infraction as a dumping. The space where you see that big pile of dirt is an accessible parking bay. Does that pile of dirt have a permit? I don't see one'.DHL van's also parked in the same reserved spaces (from Auckland, NZ) as was a 'yellow construction truck' on university terrain in Palmerston North, NZ.
'Sick of a car taking up two spaces on the street? How about a car too close to yours? What about the car at the mall parked diagonally? Now you can do something about it. Simply download a notice and place it on the car's windshield. The owner of the vehicle will be informed of their asshole status as well as the proper tips to improve their poor parking techniques. It's time to put an end to asshole parking, or at least to make fun of it'.The site has hardly any reports, just lot's of photo's of cars parked outside of the parking spaces.
"All these people were on motorcycles without safety helmets and speeding," he (deputy municipal traffic police chief) said. "Driving at high speed causes death."
'I think I mentioned a month or two ago that the transport situation out of Poipet had gone completely to crap. It's still going on. I'm hearing continued reports of tourists being followed, hassled, and bullied by the taxi touts in Poipet into paying $60 to $70 for a taxi to Siem Reap, with every dollar over $40 going into these guy's pockets'.
PMT Air will operate three flights a week between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville, though a final decision has not yet been made on ticket prices, Sar Sareth (PMT director) said.
PMT Air is best known for its flights from Phnom Penh to Ratanakkiri province, a route on which the company has had occasional mishaps.
'(PMT) announced a significant ticket hike and two-tier pricing, which saw non-Cambodian passengers charged significantly more than locals.
'SCA (the company running the new airport) hopes that runway expansion will also make it possible to land much larger Boeing 737s'.
Today, the latest news indicate that "international oil price fell to a 20-month low, within striking distance of the psychologically key $50 line, marking an 18 percent slide so far this month. The market has plunged more than 35 percent since hitting a record peak of $78.40 a barrel in July 2006."
Finance Minister Keat Chhon is violating the Constitution (Article 96) by stubbornly refusing to answer Member of Parliament Sam Rainsy's repetitive questions about the high level of gasoline price in Cambodia at a time when international crude oil price is plummeting.
On January 12, 2007 the opposition Sam Rainsy Party issued the following statement:
SAM RAINSY ASKS FINANCE MINISTER KEAT CHHON ABOUT GASOLINE PRICE
Today, for the second time in two months, opposition leader Sam Rainsy wrote to Finance Minister Keat Chhon asking him the following question: Why has gasoline retail price in Cambodia remained practically unchanged (at about 4,000 riels or nearly $1 per liter) over the last 6 months while crude oil price in the international market has dropped by over 32 percent during the same period of time?
....
If the decrease in crude oil price is fully passed on to consumers in Cambodia, all other things being equal, gasoline retail price in our country should not exceed 3,200 riels per liter (instead of the current price of around 4,000 riel).
Possibly a move to LPG? An article in the Cambodia Daily (November 6) describes how business interests are planning to get LPG kits for motorcycles. The cost of installment is just 100 $US and saves approximately 50% of the fuel costs. So a possible counterargument to decrease fuel prices?
Police provides clarification on Sok Serei’s accident
10 Jan 2007
By Mayarith
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy (KI Media!)Police authority had provided clarification on a traffic accident which occurred to one RFA reporter. Local newspapers have reported that this accident was political motivated against a reporter who dares talk about issues involving the government.
Pen Khun, the deputy traffic police chief said that RFA reporter Sok Serei was involved in an ordinary traffic accident.
According to its lengthy investigation, and interviews with witnesses of the victim, and the suspects, the police clarified yesterday the traffic accident sustained by RFA reporter Sok Serei was not politically motivated.
Pen Khun claimed that the traffic accident which occurred on 14 Dec 2006, was not a politically motivated as published by some local newspapers.
Pen Khun said: “According to our research and investigation at the location of the accident, we see that this is a simple traffic accident only. After the accident, the vehicle involved fled the scene. After witnesses reported the license plate number of the vehicle, we search the record at the Ministry of Public Works. I reported to the general who is the police chief to ask him to invite the driver who has an address in Koh Kong province. About 4-5 days later, maybe a week, this man came over this morning, he provided an explanation, and he resolved the issue with Mr. Sok Serei. This is a simple traffic accident, it is not politically motivated.”
The police indicated that the accident occurred unintentionally when RFA reporter drove his motorcycle near a car parked by Ek Proch of the right hand side of a street in Phnom Penh. When the car driver got out of the car, Sok Serei’s motorcycle also arrived at the same time, and his motorcycle hit the opening car door. Sok Serei was subsequently injured on the head and became unconscious, his younger daughter who was riding the motorcycle behind him was also injured.
The police indicated that according to its lengthy detailed investigation and interviews with witnesses of the victims and the driver of the car, an arrangement was reached between the victim and the family of the driver, and they agreed to recognize the accident to be a traffic accident, and that no political issue was involved. The driver of the car agreed to help pay some of the damages> sustained by the reporter involved in this accident.
Opposition demands a government response over record gasoline prices
Demands for answers in Cambodia over record gas prices
PHNOM PENH Cambodia's political opposition has demanded a government response over record petrol prices, which remain at over one US dollar a litre despite falling global oil costs.
"Why has the price not gone down when the cost of oil worldwide has dropped ... I want an answer from (Finance Minister) Keat Chhon," opposition leader Sam Rainsy wrote in a letter, dated January 12.
"This creates hardships for the Cambodian people," he added, saying the minister has so far refused to respond to his questions.
Crude oil prices closed at below 53 dollars a barrel Friday -- levels not seen since June 2005 -- after reaching highs in mid-2006 of around 78 dollars per barrel.
Cambodian petrol prices more than doubled as a result of the global surge last year, pushing up the cost of other essential goods as well.
While there has been a slight ease in pump prices, petrol in Cambodia shows no signs of dropping sharply.
Government officials say they have no control over fuel costs, although some have suggested that the finance ministry could urge gas companies for an across-the-board cut.
Gas companies in Cambodia have little reason to lower their prices once international markets drive them up amid a dearth of competition. There are no government subsidies to soften the impact of higher energy costs.
Spiralling traffic deaths force Cambodia to tame wild roads
by Sue Se
Sun Jan 7, 5:04 PM ET
PHNOM PENH (AFP) - Another weekend night falls over Phnom Penh and the capital's streets are awash in red tail lights as hundreds of drivers clog the main boulevards or dart down side roads to avoid the bumper-to-bumper crush.
Whole families cling to the seats of small motorbikes, the youngest often perched over the handlebars like hood ornaments, while young turks on neon scooters dip dangerously in and out of traffic and expensive SUVs cruise the pavement like asphalt sharks.
Later in the evening, the inevitable crowds gather over crumpled vehicles. Arguments, or even gunshots will erupt across shattered windscreens.
The maimed and broken bodies will be carted off to hospitals as police bend over lines of white spraypaint on the road marking where vehicles cartwheeled or skidded to an abrupt and often fatal halt.
Traffic fatalities have more than doubled in the last five years, becoming Cambodia's second deadliest killer behind HIV/AIDS and resulting in mounting costs for the government.
Some 1,070 people were killed in the first 10 months of last year, compared with only 400 deaths reported in 2000, and experts fear many more deaths might go unrecorded.
An average of three people are killed and more than 100 hurt each day on Cambodia's roads, putting the country's fatality rate at nearly double the regional average, according to Sann Socheata, a road safety program manager with Handicap International Belgium.
"More than 90 percent of accidents are caused by human error," she said.
The cost to impoverished Cambodia's economy is some 130 million US dollars a year in healthcare and lost productivity, or roughly 3.0 percent of the gross domestic product -- again, a regional high.
"It is really a big concern, as road traffic accidents have a huge negative impact on the country's development," she told AFP.
In a bid to put an end to the carnage the government has pushed through drastic new traffic laws, previously unheard of in Cambodia's free-wheeling road culture.
Drivers' licenses will now be mandatory, as will helmets for those on motorbikes and seatbelts for vehicle drivers. Speeding and drunk driving - both common on Cambodia's roads - will for the first time be illegal.
"This law is needed now ... because traffic accident are on the rise," said Heng Samrin, president of Cambodia's parliament which passed the new measures last month.
One of the most visible signs of Cambodia's modernisation is its roads - city streets have been repaired and rural highways blacktopped as the government prioritises transport as a key to developing the war-scarred nation.
With Cambodia's new-found stability has come an unprecedented surge in personal wealth that has sparked a massive buying spree by Cambodians eager to own vehicles, without necessarily knowing how to operate them.
There are no learner's permits nor driving tests. Anyone with money can, literally, drive their new car off the lot and immediately into the chaos of Cambodia's roads.
"With the economy improving, many more people have the money to buy a motorscooter or car, and they want to drive ... so there is a kind of freedom," said Jean Van Wetter, former operations coordinator with Handicap International Belgium, which issues monthly reports on traffic accidents.
"But (drivers) don't know the rules, and when they know the rules, they don't respect them - there is a lack of respect in general due to a lack of law enforcement," Van Wetter added.
Negligent policing is widely seen as the biggest obstacle to bringing order to the country's clogged roads.
As good as the new laws might be, implementation will at best be spotty and at worst, encourage even more corruption among Cambodian traffic police.
"The police are motivated by money, not the law," Van Wetter said.
Police, in turn, blame drivers' lack of respect for any sort of authority.
Motorists routinely ignore police trying to wave them over for minor offenses, leading to frequent scenes of officers trying to manhandle often bemused drivers to the roadside.
"Some drivers drive so nasty. It is hard for us, we don't know when they will respect the law," complained traffic police chief Tin Prasoer.
But with Cambodia at the bottom of the so-called "motorisation curve", and road safety largely unknown to most drivers, respect for the law is a long way off.
"The traffic system reflects the mindset of the people - everybody wants to be a part of this growth, but at the same time people like to be free to do what they want," Van Wetter said.
'"This law is needed now ... because traffic accident are on the rise," said Heng Samrin'
Traffic accidents have been on the rise since ages, why is the law needed now?
