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My last posting before all Cambodia motorcyclists are supposed to become helmet clad. Or not.
- WHO in Vietnam claim that the compulsory helmets have saved
'... more than 1,000 lives since it was introduced a year ago'.
Which is more than 10% and has reversed increasing of traffic fatalities. Show's to some extent that the Vietnamese government take protecting their own serious.
This contrasts with the situation here, where helmets have been compulsory for nearly two years but the traffic police are not enforcing. They have announced to implement the law as of Jan. 1, though we have heard that often before.
- But it's not only helmets that worries Cambodian authorities:
'Of the more than 800,000 motorbikes registered in Cambodia, only 14,000 driver's licences have been issued since the enforcement of traffic laws in 2007, according to transport officials, who are resorting to new tactics to increase knowledge of the Kingdom's road rules'.
That's nearly 2%! Or in other words 98% have no license. New tactics however seem to be the same as ever: '... giving lessons on traffic law [at selected number of high schools in Phnom Penh]'.
What about enforcing the measures? The above mentioned article on helmets in Vietnam mentions fines of 12$!
- Other worries:
'The skies over Dangkor district [of Phnom Penh] will be free of kites following an announcement by aviation authorities Thursday that kite-flying posed a risk to airplane safety and would henceforth be banned in the area'.
Though a general international rule, CC doubts whether the skies will be truly free, a ban needs to be enforced. And how to ban? New tactics? 'Most of the kite flyers are aged between 10 and 14 years old, and if we cannot educate them, then we will have to educate their parents'.
Yawn.
- Then real worries or not? The link refers to a forum on the Tales of Asia concerning disembarking from the boot on the Phnom Penh - Siem Reap stretch. Two persons fell in the water with luggage. Damages are not paid:
'Yes, they [the boat companies] are insured but the insurance stops when the boat engines are cut...'.
Advice: 'My concluding recommendation is to avoid selling this boat trip.
Not only is it dangerous but it’s a completely overhyped tourist trap.
1. Most of the trip (4 out of 5 hours) is on the Tonle Sap Lake, meaning there is nothing to see but lake water.
2. The boat is quite crowded with very narrow seats and luggage is placed in the aisle.
3. There are no stops on the way, no refreshments or snacks are offered.
4. It’s comparatively expensive.
Instead the bus should be recommended'.
- The same site also has a recent mention of the road to Siem Reap from the Thai border.
'Fun at the best of times after seven days of continuous rain the way now looked prime. Ships in a storm seldom roll so furiously. I gripped the seat in front with fingers, toes and even kneecaps. My head begged my neck to let it smash itself through the glass window. Nineteen people from eight different countries abruptly had nothing to say, in part for fear of severing one’s own tongue.
...
Driving 150 kilometres from the border of Thailand we arrived at our destination over nine hours later'.
The Cambodia Daily though reported last week how tourists were being 'kidnapped' by rivalry between competing transport companies in Poipet, a great place ... to leave.
- Is this a worry for Cambodian's roads?
'Sam An, 43, who runs a private automobile dealership on Phnom Penh's Monivong Boulevard, said his sales have declined by up to 50 percent over the last six months from a peak during the building boom of 2006, 2007 and the early part of 2008'.
- Not so much this week. Over last weekend there was the motorcross.
- And coming week there is a vintage car rally:
'The rally is a slow ride between Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi, stopping at the most elegant hotels along the way and costing each participant some 46,000 U.S. dollars.
The cars, driven by a diverse mixture of nationalities, have already wound through Thai and Lao valleys and are currently rattling across Cambodia's scenic plains before entering Vietnam'.
- Safety issues: somewhere in this weeks Cambodia Daily was a reference to the number of causalities in February which showed a rise, which the authorities then blamed on Chinese New Year. But the reality: just a few weeks ago the same authorities were backslapping and congratulating themselves as :
'According to Cambodia Daily reported that “during the Chinese New Year accidents in 2008 dropped down because of some people understanding and obeying the traffic law"'.
A dispute? Quickly click to www.roadsafetycambodia.info for official confirmation! But despite a surprising amount of uploads on their website, their statistics are still only of last December.
More intrigue if you believe the Vietnamese. They report a drop in deaths in Vietnam during Tet due to the compulsory helmet rules.
- So what's on road safety wise? An announcement on the Road Safety Week / Khmer New Year Campaign with one of the objectives being:' Extend the responsibility to the road user - think before you start the vehicle'. A photo competition. And a number of training courses. And in depth report on the UNICEF report concerning child deaths? Nah!
'Road accidents are the second-biggest killer of children in countries where traffic is typically congested and chaotic and laws are often ignored. The highest number of traffic deaths occur in the teen years. "Road traffic is a major, major issue in countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia," said Hisashi Ogawa, regional adviser for healthy settings and environment at the World Health Organization's Western Pacific office. "It's not just kids on bikes, but also kids on the streets," said Ogawa, who was not involved in the study'.
- With the increasing price of fuel quite a few people will be thinking before starting the vehicle. Odd that it's Xinhua doing the report, nothing in the Cambodian press.
- Khmer 440 have a poll on Cambodia's traffic police: how much should you pay? (ongoing)
- Connecting Phnom Penh to Europe, Air Finland is connecting us with ...., no not Finland, but Sweden and only 3 times per month and only for a couple of months. And you can only book seats if you can read Finnish. And the future is bright, as the five year old company has only 1 plane, according to Wikipedia (Dutch version, English version is not up to date).
- The price of fuel (continued): Vrom Vietnam comes the lamentations concerning subsidizing their petrol prices and a big chunk of Cambodia's fuel bill. The result:
'Vietnamese farmers cannot purchase oil for their pumps because filling stations and privately owned petrol shops only want to sell oil and petrol to Cambodians who will pay more'.
So what to do? In Vietnam the response is to lament: 'Our staff is too small to deal with the strong force of illegal exporters, Mr Tien, Head of the Ha Tien Border Gate’s Customs Agency said'.
On the other side of Cambodia, local Thai authorities are not sitting idle: 'People in Cambodia's Koh Kong province are facing a shortage of cooking gas after Thai authorities stepped up a campaign against unauthorised exports of cooking gas'.
Again supplying Cambodia with subsidized gas is the culprit. And what is Cambodia's view of the situation? Sokimex (a local fuel supplier) owner, Sok Kong, he just reiterates all the complaining Cambodians who are stuck with high 'official' prices but for their moto's it's a low price, because the Thai and the Vietnamese are subsidizing them. 'And for us, we are so poor that we don't have that[subsidies]'.
He does however have some hope for Khmer citizens:'We might be able to reduce the oil price in 2010 or 2020 when we can extract our crude oil'.
An anonymous writes in on KI Media:'The price of gasoline is kept artificially high to ensure that Sokimex (owned by Sok Kong) and Tela (owned by Bun Rany) can smuggle cheap gasoline from Vietnam and make extraordinary profits'.
- And what happens to the collected taxes and savings made from not financing increasing global warning: a 10 million dollar road programme is 'corrupted':
'Many roads are left the same; nothing improves .... he [foreign engineer] reported that he did not see any repairmen or equipment on the road in Kampong Thom province'.
- Letter to the Editor, Cambodia Daily, December 11, 2007:
'Phnom Penh's Traffic Problem needs Fixing
With influx of tourists and foreign direct and indirect investments, public transports have now become, to me personally, the biggest problem facing Phnom Penh. Currently in Phnom Penh most of the roads are jammed all the time, which affects public order, loses us time, blocks most economic activity, and negatively affects other financial benefits of the people and entities. Cambodia seems to have no traffic experts at all, and everyone seems to be ignorant about the impact this problem could have on the economy. I hope the government acts now to facilitate everyone's livelihood, as well as attracting even more foreign investment.
Lay Vicheka, Hong Kong'.
Key words: ignorant
Elsewhere in issue no. 12, the Cambodian Weekly focuses on the Cambodian cycling team who are participating in a 14-stage race held currently in Vietnam and Cambodia. They are setting their sights high. The secretary general of Cambodian Cycling Federation, Van Than, mentions: "My biggest wish is not that the team will win [unlikely?], however that would be nice, but that they finish the race on their bikes, not in support vehicle".
Team Cambodia: on yer bikes!The section business news briefs has the following caption:Vietnam has road deaths epidemic: WHO
Some report has been studying 'human loss in traffic accidents, which has become national epidemic'. Crossing Cambodia does not precisely know what the WHO understands under an epidemic (more than person dies of bird flu?), but it seems a bit over the top. And as if the human tragedy is not enough, the 'Asian Development Bank estimate that US$885 million is lost from Vietnam's economy every year because of traffic accidents'. That's a lot of money, even to the ADB (who really only care about the money) and let's thank ADB for putting this into numbers. How much did the report cost? Will the ADB now refrain from funding roads? Doctor thinks not, lip service was what was demanded.Furthermore in the business section of the Cambodia Weekly, the 'table of the week'! Exciting! The Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) has supplied two(!) tables (from their Cambodia Investment Guide Book (can't be that voluminous)) concerning Cambodia's standing, internationally, on road density (paved) which is 0.011 (apples?). Thailand has 8 times more paved roads, Vietnam six times more. this despite the three countries having roughly the same amount of dirt tracks. Relevance to readers?
The second table reports on modes of transport. Without Crossing Cambodia mentioning CDC are off their rockers, how can they claim that 20% of all passengers (are persons) use the railways! Maybe they haven't be let in on the secret, that the railway system is defunct. ADB to the rescue!
