{"id":1988,"date":"2019-08-28T13:47:38","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T12:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/?p=1988"},"modified":"2019-08-28T13:47:38","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T12:47:38","slug":"slow-zones-safe-zones-in-vietnam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/injury-prevention\/2019\/08\/28\/slow-zones-safe-zones-in-vietnam\/","title":{"rendered":"Slow Zones, Safe Zones in Vietnam"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Written by: Sidik M<\/a>, Attwood P<\/a>, Powlowski R, Ariobowo A<\/a>, Peden M<\/a><\/p>\n

Can you imagine\u2026 that there are 68 people<\/a> are killed on our roads in Vietnam every day? Every single day, 68 people leave their homes in the morning and never return. This is the same as one Airbus A380 crashing every week \u2013 with everyone on board dying. It\u2019s a tragedy that goes beyond imagination. It is particularly difficult to accept that children and young people are the most affected. Road traffic crashes are one of the leading cause of death for children ages 5-14 years in Vietnam<\/a>. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study for 2017<\/a>, we lose 2,150 children in road crashes every year. And it doesn\u2019t end there. According to official sources, for every child that dies, four are permanently disabled and another ten are seriously injured.<\/p>\n

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Many children are killed on their way to or from school, on their daily commute to get an education. Dangers are everywhere. People drive down the wrong side of the street, fly through red lights, and drive on the sidewalk when the streets are too jammed. Speed, in particular, is a major contributing factor in many of the fatal crashes.<\/p>\n

In other parts of the world, there are school zones, which according to iRAP<\/a> are \u201careas within the vicinity of schools and other educational establishments where school children and young pedestrians are likely to be present in high numbers. School zones will often incorporate reduced speed limits for certain times of the day\u2026 and are likely to have appropriate road signs and markings to make motorists aware of the presence of vulnerable road users such as young pedestrians and bicyclists.\u201d In Vietnam school zones do not exist. In fact, young children and pedestrians are the least respected in our traffic chaos. Crossing a six lane national road – without a traffic light, without a zebra crossing – while avoiding the continuous stream of cars, trucks and motorcycles \u2013 that\u2019s the daily reality for children. Nobody slows down for them. Nobody cares. Ignoring pedestrians is a socially accepted behaviour in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

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The Child Road Safety Challenge<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2017, Fondation Botnar<\/a> launched the Child Road Safety Challenge<\/em> (\u201cThe Challenge\u201d) acknowledging the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 which states that every child should be afforded protection, every child has the inherent right to life. \u201cOne important way to do this is to address the epidemic of children killed on the world\u2019s roads,\u201d says Fondation Botnar. The Child Road Safety Challenge<\/em><\/a> is managed by\u00a0the Global Road Safety Partnership<\/a> (GRSP) with technical assistance in monitoring and evaluation by the George Institute for Global Health UK<\/a>. It is implemented in thirteen cities in seven countries; India, Mexico, Romania, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia and Vietnam.<\/p>\n

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The Slow Zones, Safe Zones<\/em> project in Vietnam<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Vietnam, the non-profit organization AIP Foundation<\/a> was selected to implement its Slow Zones, Safe Zones<\/em> project in Pleiku in collaboration with the local government and paint company KOVA<\/a>. A consortium of public, private, and civil society partners each play important roles in the delivery of the programme.<\/p>\n

Pleiku is located in the Central Highlands along the Southern Economic Corridor of the Greater Mekong Sub-region<\/a>. There is increasing industrial traffic linking Bangkok in Thailand to the Vietnamese coastal city of Quy Nhon. Pleiku, the capital of Gia Lai province, is a province with 34 different ethnic groups living together where the average per capita income is less than US$5 per day<\/a>. In 2016, in Gia Lai province, according to official sources there were 425 reported road traffic crashes that left 234 people dead (17 of whom were children) and 494 injured. Pleiku accounts for 24% of Gia Lai province\u2019s cases.<\/p>\n

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The interventions<\/strong><\/p>\n

Slow Zones, Safe Zones <\/em>\u2013 a two-year project that focuses on speed reduction and school zone safety \u2013kicked-off in April 2018 and includes the following activities:<\/p>\n

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There are 33 primary schools with approximately 25,000 students in Pleiku. Two pilot schools (Phan Dang Luu school and Nguyen Luong Bang school) were selected to receive the full intervention. The school selection was based on:<\/p>\n