How many lives must we lose before the government decides to act?
Contrary to what many believe, the leading cause of traffic collisions are related to road user behavior rather than to road infrastructure. This fact was already proved by scientific studies and was, again, proved on Lebanon’s roads.
Did the New Traffic Law have any effect?
To understand better, we can simply look at traffic statistics provided by the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) that show an overall decrease of traffic collisions and casualties in Lebanon.
If we compare traffic crash statistics from January until September 2015 to the same months in 2014, we can see a radical decrease in the toll of crashes (46%), injuries (44%) and fatalities (28%).
The enforcement of the law must remain continuous
The efforts of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) are well appreciated, however, they still have a long way to go. After May 2015, the strictness of enforcement began fading off and we started witnessing an increase traffic crash tolls. Eleven deaths have been reported since the beginning of the October (8 days), most of whom are young adults.
Civil society and the ISF alone can’t succeed in eliminating traffic deaths
Ever since the new traffic law went into effect last April, Kunhadi has urged the Prime Minister to call for the meeting of the National Council for Road Safety in order to set forth a comprehensive plan of action to improve road safety in Lebanon that would include and organize all that comes into play in improving road safety, be it laws, infrastructure, research, awareness, etc. But so far, the government has not responded.
How many people like Bahaa Abou Elhassan (21 years), Maryam Tabbaa Chalabi (17 years), Suzanne El Amoury (37 years) and her unborn child, Fady Mourad (33 years) and many others must lose their lives before the government decides to act?
May all traffic victims rest in peace…
