Yemenis celebrate eid with increased traffic accidents [Archives:2007/1115/Front Page]
Fatima Al-Ajel
SANA'A, Dec. 26 – Due to vehicles being overweight and carrying more than the appropriate number of passengers, 74 were killed and 356 injured in in traffic accidents between Dec. 15 and 22 during this year's Eid Al-Adha holiday.
According to the General Traffic Administration's most recent report, traffic accident victims during this eid involved 50 men, 18 women and six children. The administration's Deputy General Director Salim Awad stated that according to the latest official statistics, 197 accidents occurred across the country.
Official numbers for last year's Eid Al-Adha reported that 171 traffic accidents killed 46 and injured 167 citizens.
The administration attributed the increased number of eid accidents mainly to reckless driving, poor vehicle maintenance and drivers' carelessness. Awad further explained that during eids, drivers utilize the opportunity of many citizens returning to their villages to carry either more than the legal weight or more than the allowable number of passengers for their vehicles, which contributes to the large number of deaths and injuries.
While there are rules and traffic laws preventing buses and vehicles from carrying more than the legal number of passengers, due to ignorance, neither drivers nor passengers heed them.
Poverty and poor economic situations are other reasons forcing many to take public buses or cheaper transportation, even if they aren't safe. “Many passengers prefer paying less money for such transport, regardless of the dangers they might face,” Awad noted.
A few days before this Eid Al-Adha, Yemen's Interior Ministry launched an awareness campaign, distributing 250,000 booklets and pamphlets to drivers and citizens nationwide urging them to seek to avoid increased traffic accidents, especially during the eid.
The ministry recommended drivers in all Yemeni governorates be careful while driving, maintain their vehicles and obey traffic laws.
However, compared to this past Eid Al-Fitr and last year's, the number of traffic accidents did increase, with the General Traffic Administration pointing out that official statistics still aren't exact, as many accidents in urban areas aren't registered in its report.
Sixty-seven were reported dead and 262 others injured in 339 car accidents nationwide during this year's Eid Al-Fitr holiday.
Official statistical sources further reveal that between January and the end of September, 9,420 accidents have occurred throughout Yemen this year, causing the deaths of 1,706 citizens.
General official statistics for 2006 report that there were 13,342 traffic accidents in Yemen, killing 2,816 and injuring 17,147. Official figures reveal that more than 2,000 people die annually in traffic accidents in Yemen.
An estimated 1.2 million are killed annually in vehicle accidents worldwide and as many as 50 million are injured, according to the World Health Organization's 2004 world report on road traffic injury prevention.
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