Traffic Safety Analysis: Car Accidents
The first main reason of causing traffic accident is overspeed. It can seriously cause an accident, significantly in narrow streets. Many people, especially young drivers, always drive too fast without thinking or caring about their own safety. Some people might think that driving motorbikes too fast can make them look amazing, actually not at all. Besides taking criticized from the other people, they also take risk of having an accident or losing their life. In some conditions like bumpy road, broken brake or slippery road, they cannot control their vehicles properly. In addition, many other young motorbike drivers even fly their motorbikes just to make fun or show off to others. These foolish driving behaviors are very dangerous and can easily cause an accident immediately.
Next, traffic accidents happen because people do not obey the traffic laws, especially they do not care about the traffic lights and traffic signs. Many drivers manage to go faster when the traffic light turns yellow, while some of them go straight when the light turns red in case there are no police officers.
In fact, they should slow down the speed or stop during the light turns yellow or red. In addition, drivers who drive in the wrong directions could also cause an accident. It is very often that there are still many drivers do this. For instance, some roads in Phnom Penh allow drivers to drive only backward, but many drivers still drive forward on such roads. As more and more people can do that, people still believe that traffic laws are not efficient enough, this makes them not obey the traffic laws.
Another factor is many drivers in Cambodia do not have driving license. It means that although you are under 18-year-old, you can drive motorbikes or cars on the roads. Thus, when they drive their vehicles, they do not have skills or techniques in driving properly. Furthermore, those people do not understand about the laws, traffic signs and traffic lights. That is why an accident occurs.
The fourth point is caused by drivers who drive carelessly. For example, drivers usually talk on phone or look at map while driving. Also, some drivers text messages, chat with friends, use Facebook, Line, take their hands off of the wheel to turn the radio station or turn on the music very loud, sing songs, eat with one hand and hold the steering wheel with the other.
Drunk driving is another cause of traffic accident in Cambodia.
It is one of the most significant case which occurs almost every day in Cambodia. Even though there is a good quote about drunk driving “if you are drunk, do not drive, and if you drive, say no to drinking”, many people do not follow this. In Cambodia, people like to drink during a gathering with friends or at a party. They do not often think about the consequences of drinking. They drink so much, especially to satisfy their friends, as a result they have to drive their own car back home drunk. As a drunk driver, they become unconscious and cannot control themselves, and their vehicle. Consequently, their cars often run into another vehicle by chance, which lead to traffic accident.
The last reason that can cause traffic accident is weather condition. When drivers drive cars or motorbikes during a heavy rain or through thick fog, they cannot see clearly and it can cause them to misjudge the distance of the other vehicles around them. Additionally, the roads may become slickly, slippery and flooded after heavy rains which might cause vehicles to slide and make it very difficult to come to a complete stop. All of these actions make it uneasy to control the vehicles and lead to accidents if the drivers are not careful enough.
