Road Safety Hit by Suspension of Law Enforcement
The continuing suspension of traffic-law enforcement by traffic police since the run-up to July’s national election has had a detrimental effect on road safety practices, a senior Ministry of Interior official admitted Tuesday. Road safety groups have already expressed concern that the decision to halt enforcement of the traffic law countrywide from around the time of the election in July would cause drivers to flout the rules, leading to more accidents, though preliminary figures from the Ministry of Interior for 2013 show just a small increase in accidents and road deaths—1,901, compared to 1,894 in 2012. … Steven Iddings, road safety and injury prevention team leader with the World Health Organization, said at the meeting that the lack of enforcement—and the government’s failure to pass long-awaited new traffic laws—are both major problems that need to be addressed. “Since the run-up to the election…enforcement has largely not taken place,” he said, adding that a significant drop in helmet wearing from May to September has been recorded, dropping from 63 percent to 47, which coincides directly with the pre- and post-election period. … Mr. Yan from the Ministry of Interior denied that the suspension of traffic law enforcement was political, but declined to elaborate on the reasons for maintaining the ban. …
Simon Henderson and Ben Sokhean
http://www.cambodiadaily.com/news/road-safety-hit-by-suspension-of-law-enforcement-50592/
