Sometime today, a Cambodian male between 30-40 years of age riding a motorbike in
Phnom Penh's central core will collide with another motorcycle, suffer severe head
injuries, and die.
Patching up the bloody, battered results of some of Phnom Penh's growing traffic chaos, medics face a daunting time ahead.
That's the profile of the most frequent fatality of traffic accidents in Phnom Penh
compiled by the Japan International Co-operation Agency blended with a Post survey
of city crematoriums that report an average of one traffic fatality per day every
day of the year.
The approximately 365 annual traffic deaths in Phnom Penh dwarf the 160 deaths registered
nationwide in year 2000 by the Cambodia Mine Incident Database Project, a matter
not overlooked by NGOs that have traditionally concentrated their resources on reducing
mine incidents and assisting their victims.
"It's a fact that mine incidents are decreasing while disabilities from traffic
accidents are increasing," said Isabel Plumat, Country Director for Handicap
International (HI). "This is a real problem that will become more and more of
a problem in the future."
Ouk Sisovann, Executive Director of the Disability Action Center (DAC), an umbrella
group of 50 organizations that assists Cambodia's disabled, says that DAC has likewise
noted "an increasing trend in traffic accident-related disabilities since 1998."
In response, DAC and Handicap International are now shifting the focus of their services
from addressing the needs of land mine victims to the victims of traffic accidents.
Impeding an accurate independent assessment of the scope and severity of traffic
accidents in Phnom Penh is a dearth of reliable data from responsible government
agencies.
According to the Ministry of Public Works and Transport , only 661 traffic deaths
occurred nationwide from 1994 -1999.
Phnom Penh Municipal Police say a total of 499 accidents - 90% of them involving
motorcycles - occurred on the streets of just Phnom Penh in 2000. Those numbers are
in turn a fraction of those documented by the Red Cross's SAMU emergency ambulance
service, which responded to 2,500 accidents in the same period.
"Remember that SAMU only has four ambulances so that there are more [accidents
occurring] out there," said HI's Eric Debert, who is leading HI's traffic injury
program. What even the most dubious of official traffic accident statistics reflect
is the growing danger of Phnom Penh's roads.
Municipal Police report that between 1997-1999 accident fatalities increased by an
alarming 58%.
"Drunk driving and reckless driving are the causes of the vast majority of the
accidents we see," SAMU Logistics Officer Pen Siny said of the 3,008 accident
victims his ambulance teams carted back to Calmette in 2000.
As for the approximately 15 people that SAMU teams find dead on the scene each month
"...we leave them for their families to take away," he added.
Patching up the bloody, battered results of some of Phnom Penh's growing traffic chaos, medics face a daunting time ahead.
Those who survive traffic accidents have a high likelihood of permanent mental or
physical disability.
SAMU statistics indicate that 79% of Phnom Penh traffic accident victims are left
with "serious injuries that could possibly lead to disability."
The near-universal failure of motorcycle riders to wear helmets leaves a further
57.8% of accident victims with serious head injuries.
Sisovann says physical recovery of local traffic accident victims is hampered by
the limitations of Cambodia's resource-starved medical system
"Accident victims require very good surgical, post-operative and rehabilitation
care which is not widely available in Cambodia," Sisovann said, noting that
the Kingdom's only spinal column rehabilitation facility is in Battambang.
Those facilities that do offer rehabilitation services are recording steep increases
in the numbers of traffic accident victims.
At the Rehabilitation Clinic of the Cambodian School for Prosthetics and Orthotics
(CSPO) in Phnom Penh, the number of traffic accident victims who received therapy
or prostheses due to amputations rose from two in 1995 to 55 in 2000.
Mike Goodge, an HI road safety consultant, warns that the repair and resurfacing
of roads in Phnom Penh will only increase the number of deaths and severity of injuries
caused by traffic accidents.
"New roads mean higher speeds with many more accidents and much more severe
injuries," Goodge said.
"A child hit by a car traveling at 20 kph has a 95% chance of living while a
child hit by a car traveling at 40 kph has a 95% chance of dying."
Goodge and HI are mapping out a road safety education program and motorcycle helmet
promotion program as means of stemming the pain and suffering caused by traffic accidents.
The road safety education program will be focused on both future drivers as well
as the estimated 60% of car drivers on the roads of Phnom Penh that the MPWT says
lack licenses and have never undergone any driver education
According to MPWT Deputy Director General Ung Chun Hour, the government has acknowledged
the need to improve the skills of the Cambodians behind the wheel with a new traffic
law to be submitted this month to the Council of Ministers.
A traumatised accident victim is treated for a head injury.
The draft law is designed to meet ASEAN standards of driver safety and decrees mandatory
use of motorcycle helmets, seat belts and stiff fines for drunk driving.
Meanwhile, DAC Advisor Helen Pitt says service providers for the disabled are preparing
to retool their programs to accommodate the ever-increasing numbers of traffic accident
victims expected over the coming decade.
"The trends are indicating that caring for traffic accident victims is going
to be a major service need in Cambodia," Pitt said.
"We need to plan medical and rehabilitation services to cope with this new problem."
