08/29/2021 6:01 AM
Clarín.com
Cities
Updated 08/29/2021 6:01 AM
With strict quarantines and routes closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, last year all road accident rates fell in the country.
While that statistic is not a benchmark, it could well have set a trend.
Because in the first half of 2021,
1,675 people died
in road accidents, a figure that represents a reduction of 42% compared to previous years.
The official figures are from the study of the Road Observatory of the National Road Safety Agency (ANSV), a body dependent on the Ministry of Transportation of the Nation.
In the organism they emphasize that so far this year, and already with a circulation similar to that of 2019, prepandemic, the numbers of deceased people are
the lowest since 2008
.
In the first 6 months of 2008 there were 2,684 deaths, while in the same period of 2021 there were 1,675 deaths, which represents
38% less
.
The decrease in the number of fatalities reaches 42% compared to 2018, when 2,893 people died.
That was
the year with the highest accident rate for a semester
.
The report excludes from the comparison to the year 2020, due to the exceptionality of preventive measures due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the effects they represented on vehicle traffic and in the particular road scenario.
The Minister of Transportation of the Nation, Alexis Guerrera, said that the objective is that "this decrease in the accident rate is only the first of many more good results in this matter."
And he stressed that "the promotion of specific policies and the presence of control agencies in more and more districts throughout the country is key."
In this regard, the provinces that register the highest fatal road accidents, in relation to mortality rate and frequency of occurrence of road incidents,
are Santiago del Estero, Misiones and Chaco
.
Regarding the characteristics of fatal road accidents,
50% occurred on routes
and 55% percent were by collision.
Of the fatal victims,
the number of men who died is almost four times that of women
, and 42% of the victims are young people between 15 and 34 years of age.
Furthermore, motorcyclists account for 48% of fatalities.
Motorcyclists account for 48% of fatalities.
“We are going through a path that we know is difficult, but that is not going to stop until we have fewer and fewer road victims in the country.
More education, more controls, more campaigns, better laws and greater commitment of all is the only recipe that works, ”said Pablo Martínez Carignano, executive director of the ANSV.
In this sense, last year the
National Road Safety Education Plan was
launched
, through which work is carried out in a coordinated manner between the Nation and the provinces for the inclusion of road safety education in schools throughout the country.
It is estimated that by the end of the year more than
20 thousand teachers
will have completed the training.
One of the most effective vaccines against road safety is driver education.
Photo Télam / Daniel Dabove
Another axis of the ANSV is the promotion of the Zero Alcohol Driving Act throughout the country.
The project was prepared by the Agency, associations of relatives of traffic victims, the Ministry of Health and SEDRONAR and is awaiting parliamentary debate.
Currently, seven provinces have zero alcohol regulations and several localities have joined the initiative.
The last were Tigre, General Rodríguez, Ezeiza and Ramallo.
To underpin this policy, nine editions of the Federal Breathalyzer Program have already been carried out, with simultaneous controls in the 23 provinces.
From its implementation in December 2020 to the last edition of Saturday, August 21, a decrease of 7% to 3% of positive alcohol content was registered in controls carried out on drivers throughout the country.
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