TRANSPORT-LATIN AMERICA: Traffic Accident Epidemic

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Daniel Gatti

MONTEVIDEO, Oct 14 1998 (IPS) - Traffic accidents kill more than 40,000 people each year in the five southernmost Latin American nations, but thus far little has been done to stop the carnage.

So far only Brazil has taken drastic measures to curb the mishaps which not only claim human lives, but also force Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile to spend much money treating the injured. In January of this year, Brazil’s authorities approved regulations that severely penalize drivers who break the law.

Of the five countries, Brazil has the highest number of road deaths – 38,545 in the first eight months of 1998 – according to a report published in September by the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO). Argentina had 3,797 fatalities; Chile, 1,605; Paraguay, 451; and Uruguay, 427.

When the fatalities are expressed as a percentage of the population, Uruguay tops the list, followed by Paraguay, Chile, Argentina and Brazil in that order. Population figures for the five are: Uruguay (3.2 million); Paraguay (5.2 million); Chile (14.8 million); Argentina (36.1 million) and Brazil (162.1 million).

In Uruguay – where traffic accidents are considered the main cause of death among people under the age of 35 – some 630 people died in almost 50,000 accidents reported last year. Most of the victims were between the ages of 23 and 27. There are 87 deaths by accident for every 100,000 vehicles on Uruguay’s roads, which is far higher than the 25 per 100,000 rate in the United States, for example.

According to the PAHO report, were it not for its road deaths and suicide rate, Uruguay would have the best public health ratings among the five countries.

In Argentina, officials of the autonomous government of Buenos Aires consider traffic accidents an “epidemic” that warrants extraordinary measures so they have proposed adopting Brazil’s code, whose 600 regulations include both fines and prison terms.

The president of the Uruguayan Insurance Bank, Carlos Cassina, also said he supported the adoption of legislation based on the Brazilian model. The Bank, which has an 85-percent share in the country’s auto insurance market, processes 120 traffic accident claims each day.

According to Plinio Chavez, founder of Uruguay’s Registry of Drivers, Vehicles, Violators and Infractions, the country spends 400 million dollars a year on medical attention for victims of traffic accidents.

Dr Gerardo Barrios, co-author of a study titled ‘Trauma in Uruguay: A Proposal For a Solution’ puts the figure at 600 million dollars. “Each death, moreover, results in the loss of an average of 30 productive years of life,” he adds.

Human error – and alcohol abuse in particular – is the biggest cause of accidents worldwide. Both in Latin America and in industrialized countries, “research shows that eliminating all potholes and replacing all old cars on the road would eliminate eight percent of accidents,” says Roberto Silva, Uruguay’s Minister of Public Health. “The remaining 92 percent are due to human causes, and specifically alcohol abuse.”

One factor that authorities in several countries in the region have began to take into account is the increasing presence behind the wheel of adolescents with little driving experience and proper licenses.

“There is a very complex problem here, which goes from the irresponsibility of parents who ‘loan’ their cars to their children to get into their good graces, to suicidal behaviour among some teenagers,” says Argentine psychoanalyst Marcelo Rigattoni.

However, Barrios refuses to blame road users.

“National authorities must take the reins on the issue, both to implement prevention campaigns which are presently nowhere to be seen, and to adopt stricter measures for issuing drivers’ licenses,” he says.

In Argentina and Uruguay, experts say there is no coordination between the various government agencies dealing with the problem of traffic accidents. Nor, they say, are there any standardized regulations in their countries for issuing drivers licenses.

“Clientelism, friendly favours and corruption are rife in the interior of the country, so licenses are granted to people with little or no idea of how to operate a car safely,” an Argentine Home Affairs Ministry was quoted as saying by Pagina 12, a Buenos Aires daily.

In Uruguay, Home Affairs Minister Luis Hierro Lopez last month called on local and regional authorities to apply “stricter measures when issuing drivers’ licenses”.

Hierro Lopez also asked for the cooperation of “institutions with moral authority”, such as churches, “to urge Uruguayans to have more respect for their own lives and the lives of others”.