With Khmer New Year approaching next month, Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday called upon Cambodians to practise safe driving habits.

“Do not die before welcoming the New Year god, or just welcome the [New Year] god for only an hour and then get killed,” the prime minister said during a speech at a public inauguration for a stretch of national road in Battambang terminating at the Cambodia-Thailand border.

“Now at least five people die in a traffic accident every day, and the death [toll] will climb to 50 or 60 in 10 days.”

But irresponsible driving isn’t the only reason why the Kingdom’s roads are plagued by a high number of traffic accidents and deaths, said Ear Chariya, a road safety program manager for Handicap International.

“The key issues leading to road crashes in Cambodia are a lack of enforcement [and] knowledge of road [rules] and [the need for] safer road design,” Chariya said.