Development & Aid, Headlines, Health, Latin America & the Caribbean

WORLD HEALTH DAY-BRAZIL: Peace in Traffic to Save Lives

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Apr 7 2004 (IPS) - The automotive industry and governments must also share responsibility for traffic mortalities, because they manufacture and authorise the circulation of vehicles that can travel at speeds above the maximum limit – turning them into lethal weapons, say activists and officials.

Why blame only the drivers? asks urban planner Nazareno Stanislau Affonso, vice-president of the National Public Transport Association (ANTP), bringing attention to the matter on Wednesday, World Health Day, which this year is dedicated to road safety.

It does not make sense to manufacture vehicles capable of reaching 200 km per hour, if the maximum speed on Brazil’s highways is 120 kph, and in traffic-congested cities like Sao Paulo cars move at an average of less then 20 kph, Affonso told IPS in an interview.

Reducing speed is a tried and true method for reducing crashes and other traffic mishaps, which kill some 1.2 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The United Nations agency is calling attention to road safety as public health problem this Apr. 7.

In Brazil, traffic crashes – which experts prefer not to call accidents because most can be prevented – claim more than 30,000 lives and leave more than 300,000 people injured each year. Of the injured, 90,000 to 120,000 are left permanently disabled in some way, said Affonso.

In other words, for every road death, there are three or four people living with a disability caused by road crashes, he stressed.

He proposes that a device should be installed in vehicles that prevents them from surpassing the officially established speed limit. Such speed governors already have been tested on buses in some of Brazil’s metropolitan areas.

Affonso’s recommendation is based on his experience as transportation secretary for three major Brazilian cities between 1989 and 1997. In the capital, Brasilia, he promoted the "Peace in Traffic" programme, from 1995 to 1997, which succeeded in changing local drivers’ habits.

The number of traffic deaths fell from 825 in 1994 to around 400 in 1998, and the annual average has been maintained – with only slight fluctuations – since then. This despite the fact that more than 50,000 more vehicles are circulating in the capital each year.

When the municipal government moved to end the programme, the residents of Brasilia themselves demanded that the measures be maintained, including safety crossings for pedestrians and the use of radar to catch speeders.

Respecting rules and pedestrians "became habit," admits Carlos Muller, a journalist who has lived in Brasilia for the past 15 years. But it is likely that the change was facilitated by the characteristics of the capital, which has "roads and intersections that make more sense, and traffic that flows, that isn’t neurotic like in other cities," he told IPS.

In the southern city of Porto Alegre, where Muller lived before, similar traffic policies did not produce the same results, and "the people destroyed the radars," he said.

Brasilia was known for its high fatality rates along its broad avenues, where in the past cars were allowed to travel at high speeds. Prior to the traffic programme, the average speed recorded on an avenue of Lago Sul, a wealthy neighbourhood of government officials and diplomats, was 102 kph, noted Affonso.

"Peace in Traffic" began with a campaign to encourage drivers and passengers to use seatbelts, then came pedestrian crosswalks, increased police presence at critical points, radars to detect excessive speed, and traffic awareness courses in the schools.

The ANTP, an association of governmental agencies, public transportation companies, traffic authorities and non-governmental organisations, on this World Health Day has launched a national campaign for traffic safety.

The association invites government officials and public personalities to take part in a publicity effort in support of the zebra-stripe pedestrian crosswalks, a symbol of "Peace in Traffic".

Also as part of the campaign, the municipalities observed a minute of silence, will all traffic brought to a halt, in memory of crash victims.

A manifesto calling for a National Programme for Peace in Traffic, the expansion of preventative measures and stricter punishment for traffic violations and crimes was also announced.

The Instituto Ruaviva (Living road), an NGO dedicated to traffic issues, proposes changes in the traffic circulation model and in the cars themselves to achieve "sustainable mobility", with a reduction in crashes and improved quality of life in the city.

The priority should be on pedestrians, public transport and motorless vehicles, given that in Sao Paulo, for example, single-occupant cars take up 60 percent of the available circulation space but carry just 18 percent of the population, says Mauri Cruz, an expert with Ruaviva.

Cruz said it is "hypocritical and moralistic" to blame all traffic evils on drivers, given that advertising for automobiles is "an invitation for speed and violence."

Society should ask itself why "decent, honest citizens who love peace and justice turn violent and reckless" when they are behind the wheel of a car, he said.