From April 1 to 14, traffic police fined more than 7,000 vehicles – including 5,663 motorcycles – across the country, according to a report from the National Police’s Department of Traffic Police and Public Order.
The department said that implementation of the latest sub-decree on fining offending vehicles had been progressing smoothly, and appeared to have the support of the majority of road users, most of who comply with the rules of the road.
During this two-week period, 48,505 vehicles were inspected to ensure they were in compliance with the law. Of these, 7,014 were found to be in violation of regulations and subsequent fines were issued.
Meas Chandy, an official with the Cambodia Safety Solution Organisation, said on April 17 that tightening the enforcement of traffic laws was necessary to reduce traffic accidents and to ensure citizens respected the rules.
He said increased work by traffic police officers had deterred road users from flouting the law. He said it was impressive how people appeared to have an improved understanding of – and more respect for – traffic laws over the past five years.
Chandy added that increased fines were one of the reasons people appeared to show more deference to the rules of the road.
“Penalties that cost a lot of money are a great incentive to ensure people behave within the law. They are afraid of what an offence might cost them, so they tend to be mindful and take it easy on the roads,” he said.
Chandy said that the number of traffic accidents has not increased significantly, given the increase in population and the larger number of vehicles on the road. Nonetheless, the road toll remained too high and was something that required the participation of nearly all citizens to reduce.
“I urge all traffic-related institutions to make efforts to review and improve the effectiveness of their law enforcement, along with the effectiveness of their educational programmes. In this way, we will attract the wider participation of the people, which is necessary if we want to reduce the road toll,” he said.
Regarding the tightening of the road traffic law, National Police spokesman Chhay Kim Khoeun told The Post ahead of Khmer New Year that there would be no relaxing of the traffic police’s zero-tolerance policy during the holiday.
