PREDISPOSING FACTORS , CONSEQUENCES AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN CAMEROON ( A case of Road Safety Along the Tiko Douala Road) Hi Folks, Quickly answer the following quick questions : 1. Have you seen the pictures of the recent Accident at the Buea-Douala Hwy with 18 deaths ? 2. Do you or have you ever lived in a developing country ? 3. Do you or have you ever lived in Cameroon ? 4. Have you ever traveled by from Buea/Limbe/Tiko to Douala or to Bamenda, Douala to Yaounde, Yaounde to Bafoussam, Or to any other city by road? 5. Do you have any loved ones who can respond by YES to 1,2,3 and 4 above? If you had AT LEAST 2 YES as answers , then either you or a loved one could be one of those lying down in this significantly disheartening / horrifying disaster of an accident that occurred on the Buea –Douala Highway. Dear Friends I live in Cameroon, have traveled to all the regions and have loved ones also who’ve done same. I therefore developed goose pimples on thinking that either me of one of a loved one could be a victim of this unsightly picture that can only be likened to that of the Rwanda massacre. Against this background, I thought I should bring to light a responsible and interactive forum in which we can share ideas and bring up proposals on Road Safety in Cameroon. In Cameroon Road Traffic Accidents are due to a number of factors that are deeply rooted and reinforce each other, including, especially, • Drivers’ attitude and behavior,( Racing on the road, drinking and lack of recognition of tiredness, ignorance) • Transport Company Risky practices ( A driver leaves Bamenda at 9am , arrives Buea at 5pm, takes off again to Bamenda same night at 9pm. Did he have enough sleep?) • Insufficient enforcement of traffic and transport regulations,( All drivers know that at missellele junction there is a police radar post to control speed and so everyone slows down there and speed off after. T How much enforcement is carried out ?) • Physical inadequacies in the urban and interurban road networks, • Shortcomings in road safety information and education,( Have you noticed that the Tiko/Douala road is not marked?) • Inadequate driver training and testing, • Insufficient control of vehicles’ roadworthiness,( No vehicle has ever been put off the road inspite a failure of the Technical visits that as done) • Weaknesses in the rescue and emergency service • Underdevelopment of monitoring and evaluation systems, • and a fragmented institutional setup. All these factors need to be addressed in a coherent and integrated way in order to bring about a sustained decrease in road accidents. BACKGROUND The scale of the road safety problem is large (1.2 million deaths annually worlwide) and growing rapidly with increased motorization in the developing world. It is projected that in 2030 road traffic injuries will cause nearly 3 percent of all deaths worldwide, up from 2 percent in 2002. Experience indicates that certain interventions to reduce road injuries have the potential to be highly cost-effective compared with other large-scale international public health programs so we can do much to prevent road accidents. With the rapid expansion of motor vehicle and most especially motor bikes ( benskins) use in developing nations and most especially in Cameroon, road traffic–related deaths and injuries are rising sharply. More than 1 million people died from road traffic crashes in low- and middle-income nations in 2000; according to the World Health Organization (WHO), that number could nearly double by 2020. Children are particularly vulnerable; WHO calculates that in 2002, road traffic injuries were the second-leading cause of death globally among those aged 5 to 29, and 96 percent of those killed lived in low- and middle-income countries. On the order of 20 serious injuries are estimated to occur for every road death. Beyond the human toll, road traffic injuries impair the growth and development of low- and middle-income countries by draining at least 1 percent of their gross domestic product, or $65 billion annually The Road Traffic Injury Problem and Its Economic, Social and Human Costs The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1.2 million people die each year from road traffic crashes—130,000 in high-income countries and 1.07 million in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, WHO estimates that on the order of 20 million people suffer serious injuries in road crashes annually. The death rate from road crashes is higher in low- and middle-income countries (20 deaths annually per 100,000 persons) than in high-income countries (13 deaths annually per 100,000 persons)—this despite much lower usage of motor vehicles in the former countries . Road traffic injuries are the second-leading cause of death, after HIV/AIDS, among 15- to 29-year-olds in low- and middle-income countries, and the second-leading cause, after the childhood cluster diseases ( malaria, diarrheal related diseases, pneumonia, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, and measles), for 5- to 14-year-olds. WHO projects that in 2030, road traffic injuries will rank seventh among major disease and injury categories (up from eighth rank in 2002) in their contribution to the global burden of disease and injury, as measured by disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost. By this measure, the impact of road traffic injuries is comparable with that of cerebrovascular disease or heart disease The characteristics and consequences of road crashes resulting in deaths and injuries in developing countries differ from those in high-income countries. In the United States, 80 percent of those killed in road crashes are occupants of four-wheeled motor vehicles; in low- and middle-income countries, most fatalities are among pedestrians or cyclists and interurban transport buses. Road Safety Project An innovative and experimental proposal approach to the problem in Cameroon, building on the experience of other countries carried out. Simple administrative decisions can significantly reduce the incidence of Road Traffic Accidents. Less than a week after the Government Delegate of the Limbe City Council banned the circulation of motor bike taxis within the Limbe township, the Emergency department of the Regional Hospital Limbe noticed a drastic decline of the registered number of Road Traffic Accidents . RECOMMENDATION The objective of this recommendation is to help the Cameroon Government reorient Road Safety principles and practice, reduce crashes and related deaths and injuries in all interurban corridors and urban areas and to permanently strengthen the institutional capabilities of all the sectors with main responsibility for road safety, including the Ministry of Transport, as well as police, health care, and general public administration. This proposal has seven components: 1. Safer road users (enforcement programs and training, driver training and public information). 2. Safer vehicles (including development of regulations for commercial vehicles). 3. Safer roads (low-cost civil works in the pilot corridors and cities, such as signs, markings, and crash barriers, and development of procedures for conducting safety audits of roads)—the component receiving the majority of funding 4. Road safety monitoring and evaluation systems (establishment of both systems to evaluate the effectiveness of road safety activities and a national road crash data system) 5. Improvements to postcrash rescue and relief and emergency medical services 6. Institutional development and support (including development of improved road safety legislation, guidelines for allocating funds to road safety, and safety planning); and 7. Transport technical assistance (advice on improving the efficiency of operations of the road, rail, port, and transit systems). Recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention The World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention (Peden et al. 2004) recommends that governments take six actions to reduce road traffic injuries: • Identify a lead agency in government to guide the national road traffic safety effort. • Assess the problems, policies, and institutional settings relating to road traffic injury and the capacity for road traffic injury prevention in each country. • Prepare a national road safety strategy and plan of action. • Allocate financial and human resources to address the problem. • Implement specific actions to prevent road traffic crashes, minimize injuries and their consequences, and evaluate the impact of theseactions. • Support the development of national capacity and international cooperation. The report notes that “in certain low-income and middle-income countries with limited human and financial resources, it may be difficult for governments to apply some of these recommendations on their own. In these circumstances, it is suggested that countries work with international or nongovernmental organizations or other partners to implement the recommendations. Peter-Louis Ndifor (MD) Family Health Care Foundation Limbe
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 16:14:46 +0000
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