A study carried out by the International Road Assessment Program (iRAP), a road safety rating agency, reveals the high chances of being involved in a traffic accident resulting in death or serious injury when driving on the three main highways in the Dominican Republic. Chances are greater on the Southern Corridor (78%), followed by the Northern Corridor (74%), and least on the Eastern Corridor (40%), reports the feature in Diario Libre published on 25 July 2022.
The study “Information Gathering for the Evaluation of the Three Road Corridors Under the iRAP Methodology” was carried out in March 2021 by technicians specialized in road evaluation of the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), the Ministry of Public Works with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations (UN).
Stars rated the roads from one to five. The rating given by the iRAP experts was 1 and 2 stars for sections of the Northern Corridor (Santo Domingo-Montecristi). 1 and 2 stars for sections of the Southern Corridor (Santo Domingo-Pedernales). The sections of the Eastern Corridor (Santo Domingo-Punta Cana), received 2 and 3 stars.
The authorities are implementing improvement projects to raise these main highways to at least three stars, according to the iRAP parameters. To make the trunk roads safer a level of at least three stars is needed The iRAP system recommends actions in institutionalism, infrastructure, safer vehicles, safer road users and responses after accidents, and new investments.
The assessment sought to determine ways to reduce the number of traffic fatalities and serious injuries, provide an investment strategy to improve road safety, and promote design or investments to prevent possible user errors that cause accidents.
A special vehicle equipped with 360-degree cameras and artificial intelligence was used to carry out the diagnosis, which surveyed road conditions every 20 meters in aspects such as speed, lighting, rain drainage, pavement roughness, slopes, signage, road guard rails, illegal crossings, among others.
Deficiencies were detected in most of these parameters and in some cases there was total absence of these. Aspects such as speed, lack of “milling” or improvement of the paving in some sections, inadequate vertical and horizontal signaling and poor layout were identified.
The report also addressed frequent reckless driving due to poor road safety education, driving under the influence of alcohol or other illegal substances, lack of speed bumps near schools and other places where many people go, lack of pedestrian and motorcycle bridges.
The project looked into the three main corridors in the country and covered a distance of 751.37 kilometers one way, covering 15 of the 31 provinces. The Southern Corridor ranges from Santo Domingo to Pedernales, a distance of around 296 kilometers distance along the southwest coast. The Northern Corridor runs from Santo Domingo to Montecristi, around 268.39 kilometers north and south directions. A third corridor is the Eastern Corridor, from Santo Domingo to Punta Cana, about 186 kilometers along the southeastern coast all the way to the East Coast.
“The data is revealing, worrisome. What iRAP does is that it gives you a category per stretch that rates and ranks the road between one and five stars. When all that information was processed, the number of stars indicated, the levels of safety and the probability of suffering a traffic accident, we realized that the problem was very serious,” explained engineer Onéximo González, general advisor to the Minister of Public Works, Deligne Ascención, and one of those responsible for the project.
González, who was director general of the former Metropolitan Transportation Authority (AMET) from 2000 to 2002, said that during a period of six months, international experts and specialists in highway safety programs from the United States, Europe and America, studied the road corridors and determined the high level of danger of the country’s main road networks.
“We have achieved that the President Luis Abinader government place the safety of our highways on his country’s agenda, as an issue of high importance,” he said. Minister of Public Works, Deligne Ascención said at the High Level Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Global Road Safety that the country goal is to reduce road traffic deaths by 50% by 2030.
Figures and deaths
The Dominican Republic was ranked fifth in the world in traffic accident deaths and second in the Americas region, but according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) it now ranks first in the world with 64.6 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The World Health Organization (WHO) for 2018 estimated 34.6 deaths in traffic accidents per 100,000 inhabitants.
According to Onéximo González, supported by data provided by the WHO and national research, between 3,400 and 4,000 people die every year on the streets, highways, highways and country roads, most of them are people between 15 and 29 years of age and, in addition to mourning, leave economic losses estimated at three billion dollars, equivalent to 2.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Of the 5,152,448 vehicles registered by the Taxes Agency (DGII), 2,874,590 are motorcycles, representing 55.8% of the vehicle fleet.
The provinces with the highest number of traffic accidents with fatalities or permanent injuries are: Santo Domingo, San Cristobal, Santiago, La Vega, Azua, La Altagracia, Peravia, Puerto Plata, Monte Plata and the National District.
The corridors and what is being done
The Northern Corridor is the Duarte Highway that runs from the National District to Montecristi on the Northwest. 60% of the country’s total population lives in 14 provinces in this region. In the Northern Corridor, there were 1,007 deaths. In this route alone, 1,132 illegal occupations of roadside land were identified. There are 161 illegal crossings where most of the accidents occur. In the Northern Corridor, 51 sections were analyzed and diagnosed, divided into two stages: Navarrete-Montecristi 28 sections and Santo Domingo-Navarrete 23 sections.
The intervention of the roads is declared of “high necessity,” starting with the Northern Corridor, from kilometer 9 of the Duarte Highway to Montecristi. From La Vega to Santiago, 42 crossings have already been closed and work is being done on others. From the heart of the city to Navarrete the road will be totally paved with the support of the Transit and Land Transportation Agency (Digesett) and the Military and Police Commission of the Ministry of Public Works (Comipol).
“Navarrete-Montecristi is an intervention project of some US$44 million that the IDB will finance as part of the financing of the port of Manzanillo,” said González.
The Northern Corridor project involves the total reconstruction of the Duarte Highway from kilometer 9 to Santiago. From kilometer 9 to kilometer 28 of the Duarte, a plan is being executed in coordination with Intrant with financing of US$20 million, which includes improving road safety in school environments.
In the case of the Southern Corridor, the 6 de Noviembre and the Sanchez highways, illegal accesses have been closed and with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) a plan of concrete actions will be made to install the pedestrian and motorized crossings that are needed. In the Southern Corridor, 28 sections were studied with 344 kilometers. For the Southern Corridor, 371 people died from 2016 to 2019 in traffic accidents.
For the Eastern Corridor from Santo Domingo to Punta Cana, the figure was 410 deaths, in the same period. For the Eastern Corridor, new pathways will be completed from the Las Americas toll booth to Boca Chica, the most dangerous stretch, according to González.
The UN is supporting a plan with a donation of US$360,000 to train professionals in universities so that engineers can become “road safety auditors,” specialized in the application of technology with programs such as iRAP.
Investment plan
To make the trunk roads safer and achieve at least 3 stars through the iRAP mechanism based on the action pillars of institutionalism, infrastructure, safer vehicles, safer road users and responses after accidents, new investments.
For the interventions in the Southern Corridor, the results of the iRAP analysis show that the investment required is RD$2,018,000,000,000 in safety treatment that would prevent 26,268 deaths and serious injuries in 20 years and the economic benefit for the country would be around RD$9,177,000.
In the case of the Northern Corridor it would be RD$18,251,000,000,000 and in the same period it would avoid 79,920 deaths and serious injuries, which economically would represent a benefit of RD$237,340,000,000.
For the Eastern Corridor, the investment would be around RD$2,958,000,000,000 in safety treatment that would prevent 27,655 deaths and serious injuries in 20 years, which in economic terms would have an estimated value of RD$82,127,000,000.
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26 July 2022