A police officer stops traffic for the students of Phnom Penh’s Chak Angre Leu Primary School as they leave the campus in March last year. Hong Menea
The Ministry of Public Works and Transport and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently discussed plans to initiate road safety projects for young students, with a particular focus on developing safety guidelines and standards in school zones.
The discussions were held between ministry secretary of state Min Manvi and Path Heang, programme specialist on governance and urbanisation at UNICEF, along with other relevant officials, with the primary goal of formulating a traffic safety plan for areas around learning facilities.
Manvi said the project would contribute to the implementation of the National Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-30.
She assured that the ministry would facilitate various related tasks to ensure the project’s prompt presentation.
Phorn Rim, spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, clarified on January 31 that the project is still in the planning stage.
He explained that the ministry and UNICEF are currently focused on promoting the establishment of road safety areas in schools and public zones.
“The road safety project is still in the discussion stage. Its primary purpose is to participate in preventing and reducing traffic accidents, particularly those affecting children,” he said.
Rim noted that the ministry has collaborated extensively with development partners to reduce deaths and injuries from road accidents, including raising awareness about road safety in all forms, with a special focus on vulnerable groups such as women, children and the elderly.
He also noted that the ministry has issued guidelines to reduce the maximum speed limit in school zones to 30km/h, aligning with the directives from the 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held in Stockholm, Sweden, in February 2020.
Kim Pagna, country director of the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, commended the initiative by the two bodies, believing it would enable relevant individuals to carry out their work activities effectively.
However, he highlighted a concern about the low number of children wearing proper helmets while commuting to school with their parents.
He noted that despite the law requiring children as young as 3 to wear helmets, compliance is low.
Pagna pointed out that most schools lack pedestrian crossings and adequate traffic lights and signals, including deceleration and speed limit signs.
He said these are crucial for alerting drivers and indicating that they are in a school area.
“We have observed the lack of these traffic signs and continually urge the government to update all signs in school areas. Particularly, schools on national roads must have a speed limit of only 30km/h, a change yet to be implemented in most school areas,” he added.
