Road safety is 'no accident' says the World Health Organisation (WHO). Amira El-Noshokaty navigates complex streets Zeinab Mohamed is sitting on the curb of the insanely congested intersection of 26th of July Street and Al-Galaa Street in downtown Cairo waiting for the number 85 bus. Doesn't she think this is a dangerous spot to wait? "If an accident happens, then it's God's will," she answers. According to official statistics, 73 per cent of road traffic accidents in Egypt in 2003 were a result of human error. Contrary to what Mohamed believes, therefore, accidents can be avoided. In April, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared 2004 the year of road safety. The slogan reads: "Road Safety is No Accident". According to the WHO World Report On Road Traffic Injury Prevention, in 2002 the second leading cause of death of people aged between five and 29 was road traffic injuries. On a global scale, an estimated 1.2 million people die as a result of road accidents, and the number of deaths associated with traffic accidents is expected to increase by as much as 80 per cent between 2000 and 2020. The National Council for Road Safety (NCRS) was established in 2001 and became operational in 2003. The council's mandate is to integrate all governmental and non- governmental efforts in the conceptualisation of a national plan to combat road accidents in Egypt. "Egypt has some of the highest accident rates in the world," Abdel-Moneim Gaber, former under-secretary to the minister of the interior and a member of the NCRS, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Twenty-eight thousand people were injured and 6,000 killed in 27,000 road traffic accidents in 2002," he added. According to statistics compiled by Gaber's office, last year 73 per cent of road accidents were a result of human error, 22 per cent were caused by the poor state of vehicles, 3.75 per cent were a result of weather conditions and 1.25 per cent due to the poor state of the roads. The human error factor is high, he continued, since neither drivers nor pedestrians are aware of road traffic codes. Some pedestrians cross roads underneath pedestrian bridges instead of using the bridge itself, because they feel the bridge is inconvenient. But are road accidents caused only by pedestrians? Consider a typical Cairene street: as you walk along the pavement you are besieged by vehicles coming from all possible angles; traffic signs either do not work or are generally ignored; car horns and bicycle bells sound as pavement hawkers loudly peddle their wares and cars triple-park in the chaos of the busy street. Al-Galaa Street is one such street. Many pedestrians here, however, are not convinced that all road traffic incidences are caused by them. Samia Mahmoud, for instance, says that police negligence causes accidents. "A policeman's role is not only to direct the traffic, you know, it includes allowing pedestrians to cross [the street] at pedestrian crossings," she commented. Further down the street, three women were walking home from work. "There are no pedestrian crossings, there are no pedestrian bridges, and we don't use the underground tunnel because it is usually full of beggars and a spot for harassment," they explained. According to WHO, most people killed on the roads are vulnerable road users, ie pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Parking problems contribute to the chaos on the roads. "The pavements are intentionally high to prevent cars from parking on them," said Gaber. "The problem is that in designing much of these modern roads we are dealing with streets that fall within the boundaries of old Cairo. The first traffic law during the reign of Mohamed Ali, when many of these maps were drafted, states that the roads should be as wide as two camels walking in opposite directions while carrying their cargo. And so all we can do is extend vertically in terms of underground tunnels and bridges," he continued. According to Adel El-Kashef, head of the Traffic Safety and Technology Association, road safety begins with the abolition of the second-hand spare-parts market. He says the fact that most vehicles depend on used and out- dated parts means they cause more accidents and are also less safe if they are involved in accidents. And then there are the roads. The Egyptian road network extends over 45,000kms; 25,000kms of these roads come under the auspices of the Ministry of Transportation while the rest are maintained by local authorities. According to Gaber, half of Egypt's accidents happen on roads maintained by local authorities as they are usually in a poor state of repair. Egyptian highways also have a high number of accident black spots -- there are 120 on Egyptian roads. Gaber thinks the problem lies elsewhere. "Our problem is we don't have enough traffic engineers responsible for traffic signs, charting pedestrian crossings, standardising pavement height and monitoring the traffic on a daily basis." He added that specialists such as these ought to be posted in all city and town councils. Meanwhile, the NCRS is lobbying for the "Three E System": educate, engineer and enforce, which would include a traffic ticket points system. Drivers violating traffic regulations would have a certain number of points deducted from their driver's licence. If half the points are deducted, the driver would be required to attend a hearing. Drivers having points deducted on a regular basis would be obliged to attend driving school for a fortnight to learn about the dangers of reckless driving. As for the traffic tickets: fines should be paid every three months. Civil society organisations also have their role to play in road traffic awareness. The Egypt Traffic Safety and Technology Association, for instance, was established in 2000 and has been involved in awareness campaigns held in youth centres and schools. Things to think about: 1. Every year over 180,000 children under 15 years of age are killed in road crashes around the world, and hundreds of thousands are disabled for life. In 2002, 96 per cent of those children were from low-income and middle- income countries. (Source: "Road Safety is no Accident", resource document for the WHO East Mediterranean Region). 2. Every day, as many as 140,000 people are injured on the world's roads. More than 3,000 die and some 15,000 are disabled for life. (Source: "Road Safety is no Accident", resource document for the WHO East Mediterranean Region). 3. The number of injured people in traffic accidents in Egypt in 2003 was 64,605, 55 per cent of whom were youth. (Source: brochure issued by the Ministry of Health and Population in collaboration with the WHO). 4. Microbuses transport over 2.5 million citizens daily in Egypt. The majority of road accidents in Egypt involve microbuses. (Source: Abdel-Moneim Gaber). 5. Eighteen and a half million road traffic violation tickets are issued annually. Calculated at the rate of minimum fines (LE50) this amounts to LE900 million in national annual income. (Source: Abdel-Moneim Gaber).
