Source: Graph by AIP Foundation, Data collected by Cambodia RTAVIS
There's a lot of really good information out there on Cambodian traffic safety thanks to the Cambodia Road Traffic Accident and Victim Information System or RTAVS.
RTAVIS is run by Handicap International Belgium-Cambodia and they run the best injury surveillance program in Southeast Asia, and probably on the entire continent. RTAVIS publishes monthly and yearly reports on the status of Cambodian road accidents. Currently, they are writing a study looking at the impact of enforced helmet wearing in Cambodia. Until this year, there was a law requiring all motorcyclists to wear helmets but the police rarely issued fines. Beginning in January all this changed, preliminary findings show that helmet wearing has shot up to 60% and fatalities are already down compared to this time last year. I've talked to RTAVIS's program manager and she says that a study will be published in April.
Until then, here's your data fix for the day, courtesy of information provided by RTAVIS. Above is a graph showing fatalities by age in Cambodia during 2008. Between the ages of 16 and 30, drivers are most at risk but afterwards fatalities level off. This is the same finding we find in all countries, developing and undeveloped. The more we focus on donating helmets to children and lobbying for a mandatory road safety curriculum in primary school, the more dividends this education will pay off five or ten years down the line.
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