June 10th: Argentinian Road Safety Day

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Created: Friday, 12 June 2015 17:19

Why don’t deaths decrease in Argentina?

 

On the first four years of the UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety,

the deaths in traffic haven’t even been reduced 1%.

 

Deaths in traffic 2011/2014

According to official figures (NTSA*) - 0,6%

According to figures by Luchemos por la Vida - 0,6%

 

Even though the UN has declared the years 2011-2020 as the “Decade of Action for Road Safety” and the participating countries commited themselves to take actions that lead to diminishing deaths in traffic by a 50%, still, in Argentina, sustainable progress that reduces deaths and wounded people significantly is nowhere to be seen. In order to revert this situation, it is essential to accomplish:

  • permanent and generalized use of helmet on moped, motorcycles and bikes
  • permanent and generalized use of seat belts and child restraint systems on the rest of the vehicles
  • permanent and generalized enforcement of speed limits
  • permanent and generalized enforcement regarding alcohol and/or drug use by drivers
  • generalized granting of pedestrian priority
  • improvement of road infraestructure for the road safety of every user of the thoroughfare, especially the most vulnerable: children, pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.

Some problems are worsening

  • Deaths by motorcycle or moped are multiplying in the entire country, in many cases, for not using helmet, which, despite being mandatory, is not controlled or punished in most of the cities and towns from the provinces, nor in the surroundings of Buenos Aires.
  • From 2007 to date, the use of mobile phones by drivers has multiplied, and it has tripled among pedestrians, according to studies by Luchemos por la Vida.
  • The massive use of bikes is promoted in many cities, without controlling the enforcement of the most elemental safety standards for cyclists, such as the use of helmet, and without providing an appropriate safety infraestructure.

Every national, provintial and municipal authority must take on their serious responsibility on the subject (for example: law enforcement).

And every one of us has to take responsibility urgently on the personal changes on our behaviour on the thoroughfare to take care of our lives and everybody else’s.

* 2014 ANSV figures  according to  IRTAD  - International Transport Forum – Road Safety Annual Report 2015