A national dissemination workshop on the draft of the new road traffic law was held on 2nd of August 2012 at the Sunway Hotel, Phnom Penh. The workshop was presided over by HE Tram Ivtek—Minister of Public Works and Transport and Chair of the Cambodian National Road Safety Committee. Together, representatives from several government ministries, members of the National Road Safety Committee, and civil societies working on road safety actively participated in the workshop. The workshop was co-organized by the National Road Safety Committee (NRSC) and the Cambodian Red Cross (CRC) with technical assistance of the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) through funded support of the Bloomberg Philanthropies. The main objective of the workshop was to speed up the process for the development of the new road traffic law in order to reduce deaths and severe injuries, particularly in reducing the risk of head injuries among motorcycle passengers in road crashes. According to the preliminary report of the Road Crash and Victim Information System (RCVIS) there were almost 2,000 deaths in 2011. The most vulnerable group was motorbike users, who constituted about 70% of the total casualities, in which 70% of fatalities suffered head injuries. Not surprisingly, from all motorcycle fatalities, motorbike passengers had a higher rate of head injury than motorbike drivers. In general, head injuries are very serious, often leading to death, with those who survivor often needing special care, long term treatment and may never fully recover. As a consequence, there is a higher cost associated with head injuries than injuries to other parts of body. In 2011, according to a survey report by Handicap International Belgium (HIB) in Phnom Penh, the helmet wearing rate among motorbike drivers was less than 90% at daytime and dropt to 60% at nighttime. The helmet wearing among motorbike passengers was less than 10% both during day and at night. Several presentations and comments from technical experts at the workshop were highly concerned about the risk of motorbike passengers, who are more likely to experience head injuries than drivers in road crash as a result of not wearing a helmet. They fully supported the government in their push to further develop the new road traffic law, especially the extension of article number 9 of the current road traffic law to insert the requirement for mandatory helmet wearing for motorbike passengers including children. The soonest approval of the new road traffic law would lead to a significant reduction in head injuries and deaths among motorbike passengers. In order to align with the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020, the government of Cambodia commits to reduce 50% of road traffic deaths by 2020. This new law would assist the government in meeting this target. For further information, please contact: Mr. Chhoun Voun Chief of Statistic Section General Secretariat of the National Road Safety Committee Mobile phone: +855 16 886 464 Email: voun.chhoun@gmail.com
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