2024News

Business leaders alarmed over high traffic fatality rate

Laura Peña Izquierdo, president of the Dominican Republic Employers’ Confederation (Copardom), has voiced deep concern over the nation’s alarmingly high traffic fatality rate. According to World of Statistics, the Dominican Republic ranks first globally, with a staggering 65 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

The Dominican government has been reticent in contracting technology that would automatically penalize drivers that violate the law. About a decade ago, the government of South Korea offered a technological solution that would remove human discretion from the applying of the fines.

Peña Izquierdo is general manager of her insurance brokerage firm, Peña Izquierdo, Corredores de Seguros and a past president of the Dominican Association of Insurance Brokers.

Peña Izquierdo raised this pressing issue during the opening ceremony of Copardom’s 22nd Congress on Occupational Risk Prevention. “As citizens, we experience this crisis daily. As employers, we face the risks posed by current traffic conditions, and our employees are at high risk of accidents due to multiple factors that deteriorate road safety,” she stated.

She called for a joint effort between the public and private sectors to reduce traffic fatalities. “We need to design and implement effective programs to change the behavior of all road users and strengthen enforcement of traffic laws,” she added.

Peña Izquierdo expressed Copardom’s readiness to collaborate with authorities in implementing policies to mitigate these risks. “Our organization is committed to working with the government to address this critical issue,” she emphasized.

Another critical point addressed by the Copardom president was the high incidence of workplace accidents occurring while employees commute to and from work.

Citing data from the Dominican Institute for the Prevention and Protection of Occupational Risks (Idoppril), she revealed that 65% of workplace accidents reported between January and October 2024 occurred “during the commute.” “In light of this situation, we propose strategic partnerships to find solutions to this problem,” said Peña Izquierdo, calling for collaboration with Idoppril.

In her opening address at the congress, which runs until Thursday, 24 October, at the Hotel Jaragua’s Anacaona ballroom, Peña Izquierdo highlighted the importance of fostering a safety culture within companies and expressed interest in collaborating with the Industrial Hygiene and Safety Agency of the government to expand the certification of prevention programs to the entire productive sector.

Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
El Dia

24 October 2024