Aden’s Seat Belt campaign for drivers [Archives:2007/1095/Local News]

Abdull-Wahed
For Yemen Times
Aden, October,2 ) Among the republic governorates only Aden is conducting a campaign regarding seat belts and restricting cell phones while driving. Aden governorate is continuing its traffic campaign coercing drivers to wear seat belts. It is also waiting for the Ministry of Interior to issue a law regulating that.

This step is very important to save lives because thousands of people are exposed to accidents on a daily basis. These accidents claim lives of tens of thousands. It makes the designers as well as the makers of automobiles to find suitable solutions to prevent and reduce the consequences of those incidents. The seat belt is one of the most important reached technologies of traffic safety to solve this problem. It has a vital role in reducing the number of mortalities as well as injuries.

Furthermore, the director of Aden traffic administration said “80 percent of the car incidents take place because drivers do not wear seat belt.”

“The traffic campaign abides vehicles drivers to wear seat belt and prevents them from talking through mobiles phones while driving. The campaign has been successful due to the response of the drivers with a ratio of 95 percent. The traffic statistics indicate that the aggregation of accidents in Aden governorate over the last five months reached 325 in which 297 persons were killed in 2006. The money losses were amounted to YR 51.980.000. However, in 2007, there have been so far 356 accidents in which 340 persons have died and the money losses reached to YR 86.247.000,” Adel Saif pointed out.

However, Aden governorate is abiding by the rules and regulations of the interior directives. “We have distributed posters and illustrating pictures including directives to make people aware of this step in the inlets of Aden. We find some response as drivers wear seat belt, the director of Aden traffic said.

“The campaign started in May. We are waiting for the Ministry of Interior to enact a law compelling drivers to wear seat belt. What we are doing now is an application of the ministry directives. All officials of the governorate are positively responding to the campaign,” he maintained.

Adel Mohammed, a driver, said, “We feel more secured when we bring this step into effect though we are not accustomed to it. The insistence of the traffic police as well as the increase of hours of detainment of violating cars makes me more at ease.

“Drivers in the northern governorates do not care a bit about these orders, giving money to traffic men to overlook their violations,” Ahmed A.Salim shared.

Furthermore, the huge number of automobiles makes the orders of wearing seat belt inapplicable. These cars spread in the popular areas in Aden governorate particularly in Dar Sa'd, Al-Shaikh O'thman, Al-Memdara and Al-Manssourah districts. The traffic administration appreciates that due to the strained living circumstances of most of the population.

The idea of seat belt

The idea of seat belt is based on preventing the drivers from knocking against the car's dashboard or getting thrown through the front of the windshield when the car stops suddenly due to an accident. This is because the passenger's body acquires the speed of the car.

Emergence of seat belt

The seat belt was displayed for the first time in American automobiles in 1947. However, in 1956, Ford Company provided the automobiles that would be sold inside America with seat belts. Two years later, the back seat belt became a standard too. In 1967 the front seat belt was compulsory.
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