Cambodian Senior Delegation Road Safety Enforcement Study Tour to Australia

The Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) and Handicap International Belgium, with generous financial support from the Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Global Road Safety Initiative, organized a road safety study tour for senior Cambodian government officials to meet and exchange experiences with their police counterparts in the Australian states of Queensland and Victoria.

The delegation consisted of senior officials from the Ministries of Interior and Transport, the Phnom Penh Municipal Police, as well as Handicap International Belgium - a non-governmental organization active in road safety - to observe and learn from the Australian experience in enforcing helmet wearing, drink-driving, and overloading laws.

The Cambodian delegation met with the Assistant Commissioners from both the Queensland State and Victoria State Police Forces, as well as the Victoria roads authority, VicRoads, and a company specializing in breathalyzer technology. The Cambodia delegation was granted special access to observe up-close the Australian police methods for roadside enforcement of speeding, drink-driving and overloading over the course of the 8-day trip.

The Global Road Safety Partnership believes that enforcement of the traffic law is a critical element to reducing road crashes, injuries and fatalities. Since 2007, GRSP, in Partnership with Handicap International Belgium, has supported road safety enforcement in Cambodia through Professional Development courses for traffic police. The outcomes have contributed to an improvement of, and greater commitment to, enforcement by the police in the Kingdom.

Another benefit of the study tour was that the Cambodian police members received six donated radar guns by the Queensland Police for speed enforcement use in Cambodia, and a new model breathalyzer for drink-driving enforcement. Strong partnerships were established between the Police Forces and it is expected that there will be future technical and equipment support by the Australian police to improve the Cambodia traffic law enforcement.

Brigadier-General Him Yan, Director of the Order Department of the Ministry of Interior and head of the delegation states: “The study tour was very interesting and useful to see how Australia prioritizes and enforces speeding, drink-driving and overloading. Our delegation received new knowledge, skills and equipment that our Police Force will now use to effectively target the risky behaviours on the Cambodian roads to reduce fatalities and casualties.

The knowledge and skills gained by the Cambodian delegation from the Australian good practice in enforcement will be disseminated to Cambodian traffic police in future workshops to improve helmet wearing and drink driving enforcement in Cambodia.