National Assembly approves new traffic law in Cambodia

After four days of debate, the National Assembly has approved the final four chapters of a new Land Traffic Law which aims to improve the safety on Cambodia’s notoriously dangerous roads. The 106 lawmakers gave near unanimous support to the remaining chapters which covered topics including penalties and enforcement.

The passage of this law is an important step forward in road safety on a national scale in Cambodia and is reward for hard work by a number of organizations who have contributed to the draft law in collaboration with the National Assembly. The Global Road Safety Partnership’s own contribution to these laws, working in close collaboration with the Cambodian Red Cross and the World Health Organization (WHO) is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies through the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Programme.

The new traffic law contains 12 chapters with 92 articles which address key risk factors of drinking and driving, over speeding and lack of helmet use, as well as tightening laws relating to licencing, vehicle registration and condition, and truck and bus driver regulations. The law also defines extended police powers to enforce the traffic laws together with increases in fines.

Transport Minister Mr Tram Iv Tek reported that in 2013 a total of 1,950 people were killed on Cambodia’s roads, and 5,671 were seriously injured – a worrying figure of 5.3 deaths a day and 16.5 serious injuries – and that 2014 was tracking to be worse. In relation to the new laws however, Mr Tek said at the National Assembly that through the new laws ‘we will try our best to reduce the number of deaths by 10 per cent per year in order to reach (a reduction) of 50 per cent by 2020’ in alignment with the goals of the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety.

GRSP extends its congratulations to all involved in this historic decision.