As a global issue, road traffic injuries have been largely ignored by the international community. Even in most low and middle income countries with a huge burden of problem, this problem is ignored by policy makers and societies for a variety of reasons. Corruption is one of those reasons. Poor governance and corruption can lead to road safety being ignored or neglected. In some countries in the developing world it is not rare to negotiate with road traffic police to pay a bribe rather than receiving a traffic ticket. I was traveling by bus between two countries in Middle East; surprisingly police stopped all of foreign buses and asked for money or even cigarettes.
Public respect for traffic rules and for enforcement authorities will be severely diminished, when observes corruption among road traffic police.
Corruption also impacts on the effectiveness of vehicle testing, driver licensing and insurance regimes. Suppose a corrupted road maker with some governmental links builds a road. If the company considers the width of a 200 KM road 19 m instead of 20 m, they cut the edge of 200 square KM road and obviously makes a lot of corrupted “dough”. Weak governance structures in many developing countries are at core of their road safety problems and needs to be addressed if progress is to be made.
For more info see the Make Road Safe by commission for Global Road Safety
Filed under: Blogroll, Road Traffic Injuries | Tagged: Corruption, Road Crashes, road safety, Road Traffic Injuries
