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Apr 7, 2004

World Health Day targets highway safety

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The World Health Organization reports that each year road traffic injuries kill one point two million men, women and children around the world. The problem has become so great that for the first time in its history, WHO has dedicated its annual World Health Day to highway safety. In Belize, the occasion was marked by a ceremony and a simulation exercise. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods was there.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

Did you know that the second leading cause of death for Belizean males between the ages of fifteen and forty-four years is road traffic accidents? Even though the number of crashes has decreased over the past two years, the statistics are still disturbing. In 2003, there were two thousand four hundred and ninety-six accidents in which sixty-six people died. This year, so far, there have been over four hundred accidents and eight people are dead. On Saturday, it will be two years since Sherlett Neal Lopez and her two young children lost a husband and loving father, Elston Anthony Palacio.

Sherlett Neal-Lopez, Widow

“It continues to affect us even today. At the time of the accident I was expecting my second child for my spouse and my little daughter was only a year and a half old. It was totally unexpected and sudden. In fact, for a long, long while it was totally unbelievable. I did not begin to feel the impact of it until long while afterwards.”

But Palacio did not have to die. Traffic accidents and injuries are preventable and are usually the result of drunk driving, speeding, lack of seatbelts and child restraints, road conditions, unsafe vehicles, not using helmets, or failure to obey traffic regulations.

Vildo Marin, Minister of Health

“Deaths and injuries due to road traffic incidents continue to be amongst the most worrying statistics in Belize for both men and women, and for all age groups. This is certainly a public health problem, and as with all public health problems, it requires a systematic approach.”

Public awareness campaigns have included radio and television commercials, billboards, flyers, brochures, and educational talks. Crashes not only take the lives of our citizens and greatly affect families, but it is estimated that road traffic accidents cost the country millions of dollars. Pan American Health Organization Country Representative, Dr. Kathleen Israel, says nations like Belize with fragile economies are especially hard hit.

Dr. Kathleen Israel, Country Representative, PAHO

“If we accept the fact that the economic impact amounts to one percent of the G.D.P., and some people estimates that it is higher, that it is as much as two percent, this would mean that the for the crashes that occurred in 2003, the financial costs to the country would be over fourteen million dollars. This equates to fifty-six dollars for every man, woman, and child in this country.”

Minister of Transport Cordel Hyde says it is disturbing to know that of ten Caribbean and Central American countries, Belize with a population of just under two hundred an seventy-five thousand people has the highest incidents of death due to road traffic accidents: thirty-one per hundred thousand persons.

Cordel Hyde, Minister of Transport

“Our young nation is losing its population to a situation that is unacceptable but controllable, that is, if we make the commitment. Indeed, road safety is no accident. You are not going to be safe on the highways if you don’t choose to be safe. You’re not going to be safe if you don’t make safety a high priority. You have to deliberately decide to do something, whether it means driving more carefully or more slowly, or whether it be ensuring that your vehicles are safe and you are buckled-up. At the same time, we have to understand that the problem of road crashes is not only the responsibility of the road user or the driver, it is a job for all of us, a problem that requires a multi-sectoral approach.”

One approach is a comprehensive transportation project that will be funded by the World Bank and will include a Belize Road Safety Strategy that promises to reduce accidents.

Cordel Hyde

“This system will also look at urban and rural planning, taking into consideration highway geometric design, high risk sites and low cost engineering measures. It will also target education in schools and communities, training for drivers, publicity campaigns, stricter enforcement of the laws, evaluation of the medical supports, such as ambulances, the ability of the police and public to administer first aid, and the availability of emergency telephones and hospital facilities.”

As Sherlett Neal-Lopez observes the second anniversary of her husband’s death on Holy Saturday, she makes a special appeal to the public.

Sherlett Neal-Lopez

“This is the time when the accident happened that took the life of my spouse and a friend and I really would not like to see any of that occurring over this weekend. So I urge them, please be careful. Think about your family, your friends, your loved ones. Think about your life as it is now. After a traffic accident it’s nothing nice.”

Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.

World Health Day was observed under the theme: Road Safety Is No Accident.




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