Battling Carnage on Panama roads

THE CARNAGE on Panama’s roads in the first four months of the year has already reached 170 dead, and over 1,000 injured many of them seriously. The figures include including multiple pedestrian deaths including children, young adults and retirees. No section of the population is spared. And by the  time you read this the figure will have climbed.

If it continues at that rate over 500 people will be killed this year in a country whose population is still below four million. But there has been hardly a whimper from the government or the media, with the tabloids more focused on gang killings.

In Toronto, Canada, with a metro population of over six million, there was public outcry in  January 2014 when traffic accidents for the previous year   increased by 47% to 63.

In New York (population 8.5 million) there were 286 deaths,  in 2013, and the city implemented a program to emulate Vancouver’s , “zero pedestrian death’s” plan.

The costs to Panama’s overburdened health service are hard to come by, but in the ER in Santo Tomas, whose financial situation is described as in “crisis”, never a day goes by without its quota of accident victims arriving by ambulance and helicopter.

 A report in La Estrella says the increase in accidents represents a cost to the state of more than $108 million in insurance and medical expenses

Estrella also says the Traffic and Transportation Authority (ATTT) remains “more active than ever”, reviewing regulations and decrees governing the nearly two dozen schools operating in the country.

The head of the institution, Julio González, says that it is ‘putting its house in order”  … Humpty Dumpty or The Grand Old Duke of York?

Gonzalez’s vision, is that private driving schools can play an important role in any attempt to reduce the number of accidents.

 “’For now what we have to do is check and require driving schools do more to prevent more traffic accidents ” says Gonzalez emulating the Duke who marched his men to the top of the hill and marched them down again … with no results.

Stories are legion of people “graduating” from driving schools and obtaining licenses without a test, and of under-the-counter purchases from corrupted officials, The results can be seen daily in the driving habits of people behind the wheel, from old smoke emitting bangers, to barging Prados, Metro buses and pirates, and official vehicles, including the police, who seem to have been issued with vehicles without signal lights.

While the ATTT reports that so far this year the authority has accumulated about $180,000 in fines for traffic violations, Taxis and buses jumping red lights are a daily spectacle   and it takes only a few minutes of driving on any road in the city, before you lose count of how many people are texting as they weave their way through the traffic. Gonzalez says more carelessness in driving”, forces the ATTT to “increase its audit work on the streets,”… counting the casualties? 

A Bill proposed by Panameñista Deputy Jose Dominguez has five articles including “Driver Education Week”, which he says is “the framework for raising awareness about the importance of preparing drivers before going out onto the streets”. If he believes one week can undo decades of ingrained by driving habits, then he rates alongside believers in the tooth fairy and hobgoblins.

A bill incorporating the introduction (and enforcement) of a points system, leading to tough mandatory re-testing when errant drivers reach the maximum and license suspension for repeat offenders, would be more useful. The points score should be taken into consideration by insurance companies when issuing policies, hitting offenders where it hurts most, in the wallet.  And a driving test” should be what it says, not a cruise around the block.

Such a bill would also need to tighten up controls on bribes to police. With the threat of re-testing and increased insurance premiums, the “coima” rate would be climbing in tandem.

A compulsory re-testing of all police and public service drivers would be a bonus, and allow them to lead the way in driver education whilw nsurance companies could take a tip from Australia where coverage is voided if you have an accident while using a cell phone.