BEIRUT: Lebanon’s road accident death toll has risen to 500 this year, announced the Youth Association for Social Awareness (YASA) earlier this week.
Since the start of 2010, about 6,000 people have fallen victim to car accidents and 500 of them have been killed – an unprecedented number in Lebanon’s recorded traffic history.
The Arabic newspaper As-Safir published YASA’s statistics in an article that appeared on Thursday, and said the number of those killed almost equaled the death toll of wars.
The article said young people were getting behind the wheel without guarantees that they could drive or that they were responsible enough to own a car.
“The exam at the Department of Motor Vehicles is an archaic exam and is no more than a formality,” YASA expert Antoine al-Hajj was quoted as saying. “Applicants drive in a limited space between two lines … they really start learning to drive on crowded roads among people.”
As for the new traffic law that under study, Hajj condemned the authority’s procrastination, saying the law has been under examination for five years, and urged new regulations and a system to punish violators. – The Daily Star
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