Data shows vehicle accidents on the rise

National

THE increasing number of deaths from road accidents is one of the major issues that police and the Road Traffic Authority (RTA) are working on to find ways to minimise.
Chief executive officer Nelson Terema says.
He said RTA was looking forward to working with police, Education, Works, Transport and Health departments, provincial and local level governments, as well as the Motor Vehicle Insurance Ltd (MVIL) to help reduce road trauma.
Terema said from data collected from 2010 to 2014, 12,558 car accidents were reported to the police, resulting in almost 16,000 known deaths and injuries.
These figures, he said, were conservative due to under reporting.
According to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report, it was estimated that the actual number of road deaths is likely to be more than three times the number reported to police.
“Without a significant change in how we address road safety in PNG, the current upward trend in killed and seriously injured road users will continue to worsen.
“The change requires a major investment in the design, construction and maintenance of safe road infrastructure, training and equipping traffic police and continued road safety awareness,” Terema said.
He said with the increasing number of vehicles on roads, accidents would increase.
He said without enforcement of traffic rules such as for speeding and drink driving, road users would continue to injure families and loved ones.
Terema said from records, NCD had the biggest annual average number of road crashes and the number of deaths reported.
They mostly come from commuters along the Highlands Highway, from the Western and Eastern Highlands section of the highway.