Only Stringent Traffic Law Enforcement Can Survive More Lives on Roads

By Chhay Sophal

With his face fully covered in blood, a 9-month old boy screamed loudly on a street. He was seriously injured in a road crash with his father and was urgently rushed to Kantha Bopha hospital.

The child, Meng Lyhea, and his father were travelling on a motorbike when a car hit them from behind. The two fell down, banged their heads on the ground and skidded many meters along the tarmac of National Route 1 in Ampil village of Khan Chbar Ampov’s Sangakt Khbarl Koh in Phnom Penh on 19 April 2016. His 30-year-old father, Chao Phally, sustained a serious wound to his head, and broke his arms and legs. He died after arriving in the hospital. Neither father nor son were wearing a helmet.

In another  recent incident, a couple, who were garment workers, travelled by motorbike to their home village for the Khmer New Year holiday. They were involved a road crash in Preak Khdam village of Punhea Leur district’s Koh Chen commune in Kandal province. A truck hit and pushed them  several meters. Although the 29-year-old husband only suffered slight injury, his 25-year-old wife and 11-moth-old son were killed instantly after their heads hit into the tarmac. Neither the wife nor the son wore a helmet.

A commune chief in Angsnuol district of Kandal province, also died ahead of Khmer New Year . While driving a motorbike without a helmet, he was in a road crash and his head hit into the tarmac.

These three stories are just a few among many others involving motorbike drivers and passengers, including children, most of whom do not wear helmets.
According to a report of Cambodia’s General Commissariat of National Police (GCNP), there were 113 road crashes in just the 5 days of the Khmer New Year Festival (13-17 April 2016). Fifty-two people died — 26 of whom did not wear a helmet – and 239 more were injured.

This number is quite high, indicating at least 10 people died on the roads each day during the festival. These incidents are broadcasted on national television, featured in online and print news, and shared on social media networks. But beyond the coverage, and after the injuries or deaths occur, there is a long-lasting psychological affect and negative economic impact for families, but also the country on whole.

According to a report by AIP Foundation, focused specifically on the passenger helmet law, if law enforcement were stringent from 2014 and helmet wearing rates reached 80%, the lives of at least 561 motorcycle passengers — both adults and children – would have been saved and up to 10,574 people would have been protected from serious head injury, by the year 2020. In terms of economic impact, Cambodia would have saved US$98,618,422, the finding indicates.

With such clear benefits to individuals and society, the remaining challenge is to make the law a reality. Citing the increasing number of road crashes, Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen on 14 April appealed from Siem Reap province to all citizens to respect the traffic law and always wear a helmet when travelling by motorbike.

“Traffic police and the respective institutions are committed to enforce helmet use, the law is not yet being fully and widely enforced nation-wide,” said Kim Pagna, Country Director of AIP Foundation, a global NGO focused on ending the road crisis that plagues developing countries​.

“Experience from other countries demonstrates clearly that strong enforcement is extremely effective in raising helmet use rates to over 90%, which translates to saving road users’ lives.In Cambodia, where motorcyclists account for the majority of those injured or killed, a targeted focus on the helmet law can have tremendous impact,” Kim Pagna continued.

Kim Pagna expressed a major concern over the sub-decree on enforcement, namely its exclusion of child passengers.  “Traffic police can fine adults for not wearing helmets, but not children – who remain extremely vulnerable on the roads. This is even while children are recognized as passengers under the law itself”.

Article 8 of the Cambodian Road Traffic Law states that “A motorcycle can carry 2 people and 1 child. The motorcycle driver and passenger as well as children aged from 3 (three) years old must wear proper safety helmets. All drivers of tri-motorcycles and motorcycles with trailers/remorque must wear safety helmets properly”.

Alongside the exclusion of children from enforcement,  9-month old Meng Lyhea died of a head injury after the motorbike crash.

“We encourage the government to take further action to promote helmet use in Cambodia, especially among their government staff and school students. Each government ministry or institution should issue protocol for staff to require those traveling on motorcycles to wear helmets both as drivers or passengers. This should start from the police and military forces and then to civil officials and school students”, Kim Pagna said.

He urged that clear and regular mechanisms to monitor and punish those who ignore such protocol should be in place to ensure compliance. At the same time, public awareness campaigns are necessary to affect behavior change toward helmet use. Through a comprehensive effort, thousands of lives can be saved from unnecessary injury or death.

Gen. Ty Long, Deputy Director of Traffic Police and Public Order Department of GCNP agrees with Kim Pagna saying that although the number of helmet use is increasing since early this year, the number has not reached the target level.

“Based on the meeting this month, Samdech Sar Kheng, Minister of Interior, orders all competent authorities to enforce the traffic law strictly, particularly for motor drivers and passengers who do not wear a helmet while driving,” he said.

According to the law, if users are not wearing helmets while driving and riding motorcycles, traffic police will fine at least 15,000 riels (about US $3.75). The price of a new helmet is only twice that price.

54-year-old Sok Chea, a motor-taxi driver in Phnom Penh, said he has heard about the traffic law but he and other motor passengers sometimes still ignore since the law enforcement is still a gap.

“I’ve learnt about the traffic law but I see that many people still do not wear helmet and they are not fined by police. So, I don’t wear it either sometimes,” he said.

When asking about road crashes involving head injuries, he quickly replied that “I often see accidents on the street and I try to be careful while driving, but it is based on destiny”.

Phnom Penh’s Traffic Police Chief Chev Hak also recognizes that most of the motor passengers use a helmet at daytime, but not at night, a time at which there is a lag in law enforcement.

Both police and motor drivers and passengers must equally commit to follow the traffic law so the country can minimize death and injury, especially as a result of head impact, Chev Hak urged.

Gen. Ty Long also echoes the Minister of Interior that the traffic law enforcement must be implemented firmly in order to change the public attitude toward driving on the road and to survive people from accident, especially from head injuries.