Azerbaijani govt prepares road safety strategy (UPDATE)
By Nigar Orujova
Azerbaijani Ministry of Transport has completed the preparation of a road safety strategy, Deputy Transport Minister Musa Panahov said at a workshop organized by the Embassy of the Netherlands in Azerbaijan on Wednesday.
The event was organized in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank and the Ministry of Transport. The workshop aims to bring together policymakers, experts and interested business partners to share best practices and discuss effective strategies to improve road safety.
"The strategy has already been submitted to relevant agencies. One of its main directions is creating a safe road infrastructure, ensuring lighting and installation of road signs," Panahov said.
He said that in recent years much work has been done in the transport sector of the country. The creation of road infrastructure has led to an increase in the number of vehicles and accordingly, an increased number of road accidents. For example, after independence in 1991, the number of vehicles in Azerbaijan slightly exceeded 200,000, while now the figure is 1.15 million.
Last year the number of fatal road accidents in Azerbaijan increased 6 percent compared to 2011. Although the number of traffic accidents has been decreasing in Azerbaijan, more than 1,000 people died last year in traffic accidents.
According to Panahov, it is important to take all the necessary measures to reduce this figure.
Alarming figures
According to a recent WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety, about 1.25 million people die each year on the world's roads and between 20 and 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries.
The Netherlands, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, consistently ranks in the top three of the world's safest countries on traffic casualty statistics.
The traffic problem is one of the most acute in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. Recently, a plan of measures on resolving the issue in 2013-2015 was announced by the Transport Ministry.
The Main State Traffic Police Department is holding a month-long traffic safety campaign on Azerbaijani roads from April. The campaign aims to step up measures to prevent fatal road accidents and provide for safe situation on the roads of the country.
Some 450 road accidents occurred in the country in the first two months of 2013, which caused 160 deaths, including those of 12 children, and 485 injuries. Some 20,000 pedestrians were fined over traffic violations.
Most of these road accidents were caused by speeding, while 40 percent of the accidents involved running into pedestrians.
Though more crosswalks, underground and overland pedestrian crossings have been constructed in Baku, some pedestrians continue to violate road crossing rules. The culture of proper behavior on the road has to be engrained from childhood.
A number of projects to increase children's awareness of road traffic culture and road safety are implemented in Azerbaijan every year. The main goal of these efforts is to enhance measures to prevent children and teenagers from getting involved in car accidents.