It's inevitable to mention last weeks tragic bridge affair. Though traffic deaths and carnage are an increasingly familiar part of modern day life in Cambodia, it's mindboggling that a simple bridge and in-numerous amounts of people can lead to more than 350 dead.
What could be have been a watershed for the country seems to have been put behind us all. No one is accounted for blame, no one to share responsibility. And certainly not the owners of the bridge. And certainly not the government. Responsible behavior is not Khmer and hoping to improve the future by learning from past mistakes seems a tactic foreign to the local culture.
What could be have been a watershed for the country seems to have been put behind us all. No one is accounted for blame, no one to share responsibility. And certainly not the owners of the bridge. And certainly not the government. Responsible behavior is not Khmer and hoping to improve the future by learning from past mistakes seems a tactic foreign to the local culture.
- One of Phnom Pen's more peculiar traffic exhibits (and tourist attractions), Sambo the elephant, is destined to be evicted from the city. From Cambodiacalling: 'Sambo's owner Sinsorn was told on the 11 November that Sambo must leave Wat Phnom and never return because people complain Sambo disrupts traffic'. Sambo disrupts a fraction on the traffic, I bet the PP's govenor disrupts the traffic a lot more than Sambo!
- More past haunting Cambodia. The Phnom Penh Post reports that 14 persons were killed when a tractor ran over an anti-tank mine.
- Despite all the romanticism concerning the soon to disappear rail norries, accidents can also be deadly. Again the Phnom Penh Post:
'Thnoat Chhrum commune police official Hong Savon said that a mix of heat and long-term use caused one of the norrie’s wheels to break. One of the passengers, Kong Tit from Kandieng district, was thrown from the norrie and fell in front of the cart. He suffered a fractured skull, a severe leg injury and several injuries to his arms. He died due to blood loss on the way to hospital'.
- Expat Advisory service has a couple of traffic related threads. Letter to the Mad Bitch Driving a Prado.
'Yes, you know who you are'.
A traffic related anger management issue? Strange why the letter hasn't been sent by mail. Then Bus Driver is Nuts. It elicits quite a few reactions, though it seems that most drivers are nuts.
- Over on the Khmer 440 forum, there's no less than 4 pages on hit and runs. How common are they? A.:
'Though disturbing ... it is standard practice in Cambodia'.
Hot off their website. The police are using their speed gun on a less busy stretch of road beyond the airport. And manned by 20 cops no less.
