Above: the conference in Haiti (Photo: OP Haiti)
By the Caribbean Journal staff
With several deadly road accidents in Haiti in recent years, it may be time to create a national committee on road safety in the country.
That was the proposal broached Wednesday at a meeting between Haiti First Lady Sophia Martelly, government officials, the National Police, USAID and the Inter-American Development Bank.
The meeting covered a range of issues, including traffic regulation and road safety, with several objectives emerging: the first, to implement an institutional action plan for road safety; to provide the government with reliable data on the victims of road accidents; to strengthen institutional capacity for planning and interventions in road safety and to provide an appropriate response for accident victims.
“I will give my support, and support any action in the direction of protecting the lives of our citizens on the road,” Martelly told the meeting in Port-au-Prince. “I am involved and continue to be — many lives can be saved thanks to your input and involvement in this workshop.”
According to the IDB’s Gilles Damais, several meetings with the Office of the First Lady of Haiti and partners have laid the groundwork for a partnership on road security.
According to data from Haiti’s National Police, from 2000 to 2010, there were a total of 45,783 road accidents in Haiti. That led to 972 deaths, 6,489 injured people and 36,936 damaged vehicles.
Each year, more than 100,000 deaths from road accidents are recorded in the Latin American and Caribbean region, according to the IDB.