The FINANCIAL — To reduce road traffic accidents and improve road safety conditions in Georgia, the Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads proposes to start working on a road safety strategy together with the Georgian Government. Meanwhile, the Alliance is continuing its activities to raise awareness in society and is implementing a new project together with Estonian road safety experts-representatives of Tartu Police and Estonian partner: road safety NGO TrafficPoff. With the permission of the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, Estonian road safety experts will arrange seminars in Tbilisi, Gori and Rustavi schools and kindergartens to educate children about road safety.
“95 percent of traffic accidents happen because of people’s actions, due to human error,” said Eka Laliashvili, Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for Safe Roads. “I cannot say that there is nothing happening in Georgia to prevent traffic accidents, but without a strategic approach and fundamental efforts all the actions so far have been without tangible results. The only result which we get is that every year there are 8,000 people injured and 550 people killed because of traffic accidents in Georgia. This is a 2.5 times higher indicator than European countries have. We call on the Georgian authorities to join us and work on a strategy. Creating an adequate environment and infrastructure will be very useful together with education. I am happy that our Estonian colleagues have come to Georgia to share their experience,” she added.
“Estonia has progressed a lot in terms of reducing road accidents and the amount of deaths on the roads,” said Mr. Priit Turk, H.E. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of te republic of Estonian to Georgia. “We are happy that we will be sharing our experience with Georgia to have less people killed in road accidents. A strategic approach plays a significant role in getting the final results. Unfortunately, Georgia still does not have such a strategic approach. The Estonian Government was wise enough to do it in the early 2000s. The strategy helped us to achieve our goal earlier than initially planned. Applying EU standards will also help Georgia in terms of quality of roads, traffic signs, and raising awareness in the schools. It should be a priority and I am very pleased that we will be contributing to raising awareness in the schools and kindergartens.
The Ambassadors of “SUNflower” countries to Georgia, which are S-weden, the U-nited Kingdom, and the N-etherlands, have expressed their readiness to work with the Georgian Government and the Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads on road safety issues.
“When I arrived in Tbilisi three months ago the first questions that I got asked were about whether I liked Georgia, Georgian food and if I drove already,” said Floor Nuiten – Elzinga, Deputy Head of Mission / Head of the political and economic section, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. “People gave me advice that there were no rules and that I should just go with the flow; that it was like skiing. As a result I am completely used to the traffic. Not because I like it, but because I have to be. What I am not getting used to however, are the accidents. I see how people are behaving irresponsibly. We have held educational events in Georgia to raise awareness of road safety. What about bicycle paths? As a Dutch person I’d like to see more bicycles in Tbilisi. I see very few driving schools in Tbilisi. I never see driving instructions in the streets. Who teaches people to drive in Georgia? These are questions that should be answered. Education is vital in every sphere including in road safety. High fines are also very effective. If you are not the person to be convinced by taking care of yourself, your family and the people with whom you live, maybe you will be convinced by the risk of getting a fine that really hurts,” she added.
“During the last 10 years the number of deaths in Sweden has decreased by half. But of course we are not done yet,” said Ms. Martina Quick, H.E. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Sweden to Georgia. “Our goal is for not a single person to be killed in a car accident. To achieve this goal the Swedish authorities monitor the number of indicators. The first key issue that helped Sweden to have fewer victims of car accidents is seatbelt control. Seatbelts decreased the mortality rate in accidents by up to 70 percent. Increased fines for not complying with the legislation have led to quite good results. Today it is predominantly men, and especially young men, who still do not use their seatbelts in Sweden. The second key issue is speed limits. Exceeding the speed limit is the type of driving behaviour which is the most difficult to change. We have been working with speed cameras in combination with legislation and increased fines to solve this problem. Safer roads are the other issue. Modernizing the roads and thus making them safer is very important. Safer cars are also an important issue. I think that mandatory car inspections have contributed to removing cars without well-functioning brakes from the roads. We had very active campaigns against drink driving. Even so, of all the traffic accidents in Sweden 25 percent is still because of drink driving,” she added.
“I got my first bicycle at the age of six,” said John Geddes, Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. “Two months later I fell off and split my head. I got my first motorcycle at the age of 16. Two months later I fell off and broke my arm. I then got my first car at the age of 18. Two months later I reversed into a tree and destroyed my pride. As I got older I started realizing that in the wrong hands cars or motorcycles are dangerous. They can kill far more people than guns. Changing attitudes is one of the most important things for achieving the goal and decreasing the number of car accidents,” he added.
In honour of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims the Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads held an event at Europe House Tbilisi, which was dedicated to obeying road safety rules in general.
“1,300,000 people are killed worldwide because of car accidents and many more are injured and disabled every year,” said Niels Scott, Head of the United Nations Representation in Georgia. “It generally takes the lives of young people aged between 15 and 29. It is the leading cause of death of this age group of people. If the current trend continues then the World Health Organization predicts that globally, by 2030, traffic accidents will become the first, leading cause of death. Besides this being a human tragedy, it will impact on the economy as well. For example, it will increase medical costs and indirect costs such as lost wages. The good news is that road accidents are avoidable. We can upgrade the safety of roads, we can educate the passengers and pedestrians as well as drivers. The campaign about seatbelts in Georgia led to very fundamental results. We are in the era when the Association Agreement has been signed; we all know very well already the words “European Standards”. We just need to make sure that what we say and do here is actually put into effect,” he added.
Road safety is already included in the national curriculum, according to Eka Kenchadze from the Ministry of Education. “For fourth graders it is taught along with Civil Defence and for eleventh graders – it is an independent subject. Next year a new subject will be brought to the national curriculum which will be called “Society and I”. This subject is also about learning the skills which are useful for every citizen. We will be paying more attention to educating schoolchildren about the importance of road safety,” she said.
“Exceeding the speed limit is one of the main reasons for car accidents,” said Paata Jachvliani, representative of Tbilisi City Hall. “Many regulations need to be implemented in this direction but we have had some achievements already. There are radars installed on the highways and central roads. Traffic signs were painted on the asphalt ground for the first time in Tbilisi this year. About 38 percent of car accidents happen because of pedestrians. That is why 35 overpasses have been built in the past three years. This and other implemented projects are not enough to achieve the final goal and we are continuing to work on this direction,” he added.
“World Day of remembrance for Road Traffic Victims is the day to commemorate the ones who had been killed because of the irresponsible driver (mostly), but more importantly this is the day to remind ourselves that the car crashes are preventable and that it depends on us whether there will be less casualties (because of car accidents) or not,” said Ms. Maya Kobalia, the Executive Director of the Georgia Alliance for Safe Roads. “Since road safety begins with us, we can and we must do more! We – who had gathered here in this room – are the ones who think road safety is important, and the epidemic of road injuries has to be stopped. And because we all – NGO, private sector, Government representatives, UN office in Georgia and Embassy representatives in Georgia are supporting this useful road safety initiative, I strongly believe that our next meeting will be more detailed and result-oriented, and hope there will be such support not only from the diplomatic corps [and I am so grateful to our honoured guests from the Dutch, Estonian, British, American, Swiss and the Swedish Embassies as well as the EU and UN high-officials] but also from the local government representatives in order to begin taking real actions towards Georgia’s road safety strategy writing and implementation process,” she added.
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