Worldwide, more than 1.2 million people die every year as a result of road accidents. Current;y, accidents take 9th place for reasons of premature deaths. World Health Organization believes that by 2030 the number of deaths due to road traffic accidents will grow and will rank fifth among causes of premature deaths. Most deaths occur in developing countries (Africa, Asia, the Middle East, etc.). In Europe, the number of deaths per 100,000 of the population is the lowest in the world (9.3 per 100,000 population), and in Africa this figure is the highest in the world (26.6 per 100,000 population). In the countries of the Middle East and in the Arab countries, this figure is 20.
The situation in Azerbaijan
If we refer to official statistics in 2015, there were 2,220 road accidents, of which 923 invoved pedestrians. In these accidents, 894 people died, and 2265 people were injured. But what is the situation in comparison with other countries? In proportion to 100 thousand people Azerbaijan occupies the 55th place in the world. In Azerbaijan, the death rate from road traffic accidents is 10, while the average figure in Europe is 9.3.
According to this indicator, everything is not so bad, the indicator is close to European, but there are other ways to measure the death rate. An alternative indicator is the number of deaths per 100,000 vehicles. On average, the motorization level is quite low in Azerbaijan. If we refer to official statistics in Azerbaijan 1.3 million cars, there are 118 personal cars per thousand people, of course for Baku this figure is different: 250-300 cars per thousand people. Thus, for 100,000 cars in Azerbaijan there are 83 road deaths, this ranks the country at 86th place. For comparison, the average European indicator is 19 deaths per 100 thousand cars.
What needs to be done to improve the situation?
First of all, we must recognize a number of facts:
- People make mistakes. They do this by chance or consciously. With this a phenomenon that is very difficult to tackle ;
- The human body is quite vulnerable, especially in the event of a collision with a car;
- State institutions that manage the traffic, the design of the road network, deal with legislation should share responsibility with the road users;
- Road safety requires a fairly complex approach and should cover many areas.
Traditionally, transportation systems are designed to increase the capacity expressed in vehicles. Usually, such systems place the responsibility for safety on road users, however such systems can not be safe since people make mistakes. A system that can work effectively only if nobody makes mistakes is not made for people.
What is required for road safety?
National Action Plan for Road Safety
We urgently need national strategy for road safety. Implementation and monitoring of the results of the action plan should be carried out by a single state institution. At the same time, the public must be constantly informed about road safety. For Baku, this strategy should be integrated into the overall transportation policy. In addition, the Traffic Law also needs to make a number of changes to match the road safety strategy.
Speed Limits
Practically in all countries that can be called advanced in the field of road safety, the maximum speed in urban road network is 50 km/h, since a higher speeds approximate the probability of death from collision of 100%
Safe infrastructure
Urban streets, roads and other infrastructure should be designed safely. This covers a lot of areas: sidewalks, pedestrian crossings, lane width, means of calming the movement, etc. Human mistakes should not lead to death.
Safe vehicles
Vehicles themselves must provide more security; this applies to cars, buses, and other vehicles. State standards should provide for belts and airbags, modern braking systems and safe buffers for machines.
More efficient law enforcement
It is impossible to ensure a high level of traffic safety without an effective control and enforcement. The traffic police should pay great attention to preventing possible violations rather than concentrating on increasing the number of fines issued. That is why the evaluation of performance of the Road Police should not be focused on the number of fines, this is fundamentally wrong and must change. On the contrary, our city would be much safer if the performance of the Traffic Police would be measured by the number of prevented violations, in other words, violations that did not occur because of the police's activity focused primarily on security. On the other hand, those people who committed violations must be inevitably be punished by law.
Post-accident measures
If an accident has already occurred, the victims must receive timely, qualified medical care. In addition, road users should be able to provide first aid.