Road safety

Two and a half months after the new traffic law was passed, the Ministry of Interior is still modifying the specification of the mandatory reflective stop triangle and first-aid kit. So what's going on, asks Reem Leila

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Two months after the new traffic law came into effect, imposing hefty fines and in some cases prison sentences for traffic violations, and many members of the public report that they have seen little, if any, improvement in the bahaviour of motorists. People still double park, jump traffic lights, speed, use mobile phones when driving and the peculiar habit of driving in the wrong lane seems as entrenched as ever. The reflective stop triangle and first- aid kit which the new law makes mandatory have yet to appear on the market yet failure to carry either attracts a fine of LE50 and the suspension of driving licences for a minimum of 30 days.

Confusion over the triangles and first-aid kits is a result, newspaper reports have claimed, of businessmen vying to supply them and in the process make a healthy profit.

Not so, says Deputy Interior Minister Sherif Gomaa. The ministry has no option, he argues, but to introduce accurate specifications since the two items are there to enhance safety for Egyptian citizens.

"Almost everything that has been published on this particular issue has been inaccurate," says Gomaa. "Believe it or not these items are intended to help people. It's not as if we will require people to perform surgery on the sidewalk. But if someone is hurt and bleeding at least you will have something to bandage them with."

The latest specifications for the stop triangle state the three angles be curved and not pointed -- "so they are safer for car drivers," says Gomaa -- while the length of each of the three sides be more than 43cm but less than 56cm. The lightweight triangle must also be stable when placed on a concrete surface and exposed to winds of up to 64km per hour. "If it falls under such conditions it fails to meet the required specifications," says Gomaa. In addition, the reflective substance inside the triangle must neither expand nor contract.

Abdel-Rahman Shahine, spokesman at the Ministry of Health and Population, says requirements for the first-aid kit have already changed three times. Currently kits must contain a pair of medical gloves, gauze, a first-aid booklet, sterilised gauze for the eyes and one roll of sterilised gauze for wounds. "In addition, the kit should be either made of hard plastic or strong fabric and carry the Health Ministry's seal as well as the 122 and 123 emergency numbers," says Shahine. Yet though there is only two weeks remaining for motorists to acquire both the first aid kit and the triangle the Ministry of Health's suppliers have yet to deliver a single kit. According to Shahine, Hatem El-Gabali, the minister of health and population, has already asked Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif to annul the requirement to carry the first-aid kit.

Chaos on the streets is an enduring feature of Egypt's national life. The accident rate in Egypt, says Ali Salem Heikal, director of the Traffic and Transportation Consulting Department at Ain Shams University, is 34 times higher than in Europe and three times that of neighbouring states.

"If you exercise more control over the roads you can reduce the rate of increase for accidents," says Heikal. He expects the overall number of accidents to continue to rise as more and more vehicles take to the roads. "But if we manage to decrease accidents, given the greater potential caused by increased car numbers, that is a definite improvement."

"The new fines are designed to be tough," says Gomaa. "It's not like we are trying to enforce something unusual or unheard of. We simply want people to drive in an orderly manner without putting their lives or the lives of others at risk. If you break the law you will have to pay the penalty for breaking the law. But if you abide by the law, then you have nothing to worry about."

More than 6,000 people are killed and 26,000 injured every year on Egypt's roads, according to World Health Organisation figures. How much of a dent can the new law make in these appalling statistics?

Last week 13 people were killed and 24 injured in a single road accident when a bus and a truck collided head-on south of Cairo. Security sources say the bus had been trying to overtake another vehicle when it hit a truck travelling in the opposite direction near the town of Beni Sweif.

"The new law did not prevent people from driving in the wrong lanes in this particular case though the offence carries a fine between LE1,000 to LE3,000," points out Heikal. "Nobody feels any real optimism about any law passed by the government and the new traffic law is no exception. It is evidence of the deep crisis under which the regime labours. The issue here, after all, is not about a lack of democracy or political reform. It is about deteriorating respect for the law and the chaotic promulgation of legislation."