Andrea Oliver, president of the Dominican Automobile Club (ACD) addressed the Federation of International Automobilism (FIA) Congress on Mobility and Sports meeting in Santo Domingo and highlighted the high cost of traffic accidents in the Dominican Republic. Oliver likened traffic accidents in the Dominican Republic to an epidemic, such as dengue.
The congress is organized by the FIA, ACD and Inter American Development Bank (IDB) and is taking place 6-8 August 2014 at the Hilton in Santo Domingo.
The statistics Oliver presented showed that there are, on average, 4,000 deaths caused by traffic accidents each year. This translates to a rate of more than 40 per 100,000 inhabitants. This high fatality rate is more than double the rate reported for Latin America (16 per 100,000) and five times the fatality rate across Europe (8 deaths per 100,000) per annum.
Speaking at the event, Oliver highlighted the commitment of the ACD to road safety and pointed to specific efforts to increase the awareness of the high number of traffic accidents reported and the importance of reducing these numbers. Oliver said that a combination of deteriorating roads, unsafe vehicles, reckless driving, a lack of use of safety equipment, such as safety belts and protective helmets, and a poorly functioning emergency transportation system for accident victims as the major causes of the high traffic accident death rate in the Dominican Republic.
Oliver noted that road safety is a global problem, with 1.3 million persons losing their lives and 50 million seriously injured every year as a consequence of traffic accidents. He said that by 2020, an estimated 2 million people will die each year in traffic accidents, making it a greater cause of deaths than any pandemic.
“We have to take action, we are part of the problem and we can be part of the solution,” said Oliver.
Also speaking at the Congress for the Dominican Republic, the president of FundaRed, Mario Holguin told participants that in the past 36 months (2011 to 2013), the Dominican Republic has lost US$4.09 billion due to the effects of 14,717 traffic accidents during that period. He said that these figures include the loss of lives, property, expenditures in health, damages to environment and other associated socio-economic impacts.
“Each tragic traffic accident costs the country 67 times their GDP per capita because we do not have an effective, comprehensive plan to promote road safety, he said.
Holguin said that part of the problem is the lack of legal and institutional frameworks for the development and implementation of a systematic national road safety plan.
He said road education programs needs to be incorporated into school curricula starting in elementary school. The government should raise the minimum standards required for road safety knowledge for all drivers in the country. In addition, Holguin urged that the public and private sectors work together to develop effective campaigns that stress road safety.
Holguin called for an overhaul of the obsolete Drivers Law 241 that dates back to 1967.
The FIA unites over 235 motoring and motor sport club members in over 140 countries, and serves as a facilitator to communicate and exchange ideas among its 60 million members with a focus on safety and environmentally sound choices for road travel.
The FIA Congress is jointly organized by the Federation of International Automobilism (FIA), the Automovil Club Dominicana (ACD) and the Federacion Dominicana de Automovilismo (FDA). Attending are officers of the Dominican government, Interamerican Development Bank, automobile club members from around the world, FIA Foundation, FIA Institute, International Road Assessment Programme that conducts independent safety assessments of road design in developing countries.
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