WATANI International
26 July 2009
The Ministry of Interior has organised its first conference on traffic safety in cooperation with a number of other governmental institutions and NGOs. The two-day conference discussed a host of issues including measures to limit losses caused by traffic accidents; ways to enhance traffic safety; the prospects of benefiting from other countries’ experiences; the role played by insurance in lowering the number of accidents; provisions of the new law on obligatory insurance; and the law of private insurance.
Alarming figures
Of particular significance was the information provided by the participants. Egypt ranks 12th in terms of casualties caused by road accidents with a total of 6,000 lives lost annually. In other words out of every 100,000 car drivers, 156 will die in road accidents. Heavy goods vehicles are responsible for 40 per cent of accidents, while in the period from 2000 to 2008 the number of accidents rose by 24 per cent. In the same period those killed and injured on the road increased by 36.7 per cent and 60 per cent respectively; victims of road accidents occupy 15 per cent of hospital beds; the State budget is burdened with EGP 9 billion a year from road accidents; Egypt had a total of 22,000 road accidents; car owners paid EGP518 million in the form of obligatory insurance; the year 2007 saw 22,400 road accidents claiming 6,700 lives and damaging 19,800 vehicles; the daily average of road accidents in 2007 was 61.4; and in 2006, the accident mortality rate was 8.6 for every 100,000 people. The mortality rate as compared with the number of vehicles in Egypt is among the highest in the world as it accounted for 156.3 for every 100,000 vehicles in 2006 as against 72.6, 28.6 and 13.4 in Turkey, Greece and Italy respectively.
Join forces
At the closing session, attendants stressed that traffic laws ought to be implemented strictly and should treat people on an equal footing regardless of personal status. Preferential treatment of drivers related to influential figures in the regime induces widespread bitterness and a general resentment to abiding by the law. The conference, in an attempt to raise public awareness, advocated adding courses on traffic rules to school and university curricula. It also strongly called for the joining of forces among all governmental authorities concerned with traffic safety to enforce the law.