Traffic fatalities continue to rise this year, up 11 percent in the first five months compared with the same period in 2007, said Meas Chandy, project manager of the Road Safety Program at Handicap International Belgium.

The bloody road toll gives Cambodia one of the highest traffic fatality rates in the Asean region, he said Wednesday at a workshop on the development of a national plan to enforce the Kingdom's recently implemented traffic laws.

The number of traffic accidents has dropped over the past year, Meas Chandy said, but the aftermath is becoming more violent.

"While 645 people died in the first five months of 2007, 716 people died in the same period in 2008. This makes for an 11 percent increase," Meas Chandy said.

Deaths due to traffic accidents in Cambodia are the second biggest health disaster after HIV/Aids, said Chum Iek, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Public Works and Transport.

"The number of people who die on the road in Cambodia is higher then in any other Asian country," Chum Iek said, adding that the daily death toll has risen from 3.7 fatalities to 4.5 fatalities. By May Titthara