Introduction
I would like to start by giving a brief overview of the situation of traffic and traffic accidents in my country, Argentina. With a population of approximately 33 million, and almost 6 million vehicles, it has one of the highest rates of fatalities in traffic accidents, a total of 7,714 in 1996, that is, 22 fatalities a day, more than 100,000 injured people in a year, and huge material losses caused by chaotic traffic and accidents, estimated in $ 10,000 million a year.
These fatalities figures are also very high compared to those of developed countries, which can be 6 to 10 times lower (considering the number of vehicles). In 1996, 1,270 died in traffic accidents in Argentina per million vehicles.
In this context Luchemos por la Vida was started and is now working, as a non governmental, non profit organization, with the aim to improve the quality of life and help prevent traffic accidents, and the resulting deaths, injuries and disabilities.
We have prepared a short summary of all our activities, among them, an ongoing campaign designed to create awareness and to help educate people in traffic matters that has been on the air for more than six years now, in all radio and tv stations of our country. This summary is available for anyone here on request.
One of our main areas of work is field research, which helps us have more accurate information each day about the reality of our traffic situation, and that in turn enables us to plan proper strategies for awareness campaigns and traffic education and to present different action proposals to government agencies.
Purpose
The research data we present today was gathered with the purpose of establishing the level of effectiveness of traffic controls, crossrelating number of traffic violations and their records, since improving effectivenes in this area is vital to lower the number of fatalities and injuries and deal with the chaos in traffic.
This research was carried out in the city of Buenos Aires, capital of our country and its most important city, with a population of 2,700,.000 and approximately 2 million vehicles travelling daily on its streets, many of them coming from other cities. A place where chaotic traffic is manifest and with a high number of fatalities (405 in 1996). This could be considered representative of chaos in traffic in the rest of the country.
Methodology
An estimate was made of the average number of daily and monthly traffic violations by drivers of motor vehicles in this city and related to the monthly number of records of violations taken, by kind of violation.
Those interested in knowing in closer detail what the methodology used for this research was, will receive a separate explanation on request. We do not include it here for brevity’s sake and due to the diversity of approaches according to the different variables. As an example, let me mention that to estimate the number of red light violations (excluding public transportation, which was measured separately), observers were placed at 103 intersections with traffic lights around the city (in different hours, even in the night, working days and weekends also) and only violations that started when the red lightwas already on were considered, as a sample what occurs at the 2,735 intersections in the whole city of Buenos Aires.
This research was carried out in July,1995 and repeated in April, 1996, and June, 1997.
The following serious traffic violations were observed and recorded:
- By private car drivers:
* Crossing with red light.
* Not respecting pedestrian’s priority in intersections and/or crosswalks.
* Not using the safety belt.
* Children in front seats.
* Not using helmet (motorbikes or mopeds).
- By public transportation drivers:
* Not coming close to the bus stop for passengers coming on and out of the bus.
* Crossing with red light.
There are some severe violations that we could not measure because we do not have the authority to control them, for instance, BAC tests, but we have included the number of violations recorded, considering their number incredibly low.
Let's take a look at the numbers
Before presenting these tables, I would like to diferentiate the number of violations committed, from the number of records taken by the Police on observing these violations, and the number, even lower, of these records that are effectively punished with fines on offenders.
VIOLATIONS AND RECORDS
In the city of Buenos Aires
Month of June, 1997
| Violations in one day | Violations in one month | Records(*) taken in one month | Percentage according to number of violations | |
| SERIOUS VIOLATIONS (PRIVATE VEHICLES) | ||||
| Crossing with red light | 1,903,560 | 57,106,800 | 9,639 | 0.168 ‰ |
| Not respecting pedestrian's priority | 701,040 | 21,031,200 | 39 | 0.00185 ‰ |
| Not using seat belt | 1,090,600 | 32,718,000 | 1,679 | 0.051 ‰ |
| Children in front seats | 43,100 | 1,293,000 | 28 | 0.0216 ‰ |
| Not using helmet (motorbikes/mopeds) | 40,800 | 1,224,000 | 440 | 0.3594 ‰ |
| Drink and drive | ? | 10 | ||
| No head restraint | ? | 1 | ||
| Racing on public streets | ? | 9 | ||
| Passing another vehicle on the right | ? | 4 | ||
| SERIOUS VIOLATIONS | ||||
| Not coming close to the stop | 794,000 | 23,820,000 | 9 | 0.00037 ‰ |
| Crossing with red light | 302,400 | 9,072,000 | 524 | 0.0577 ‰ |
| All violations/records/percentages | 4,875,500 | 146,265,000 | 12,358 | 0,08442 ‰ |
* Most of the violations recorded are never effectively punished, for different reasons the analysis of which would be too long
to be included here.These data, analysed from another angle, means that for each
5,925 violations to the red light one record of violation is taken.
539,261 violations to the pedestrians’ priority one record of violation is taken.
19,486 violations to use of the seat belt, one record of violation is taken.
46,178 violations to the rule of "no kids in front seat" once record of violation is taken.
2,782 violations to the use of the helmet in motorbikes/mopeds, one record of violation is taken.
2,646,666 buses that do not get close to the bus stop, one record of violation is taken.
17,312 buses that cross with a red light, one record of violation is taken.
If we analyse the total estimated number of violations mentioned compared to the number of records taken, an average of one record is taken every 12,000 serious violations observed.
Records counted represent a 46% of all serious violations of all kinds committed during the month of June, 1997.
If the total number of violations of all kinds (not included in this research) would have identical ratio with records taken, we could establish that IN BUENOS AIRES, SOME 318 MILLION SERIOUS VIOLATIONS ARE COMMITTED EACH MONTH, OF WHICH ONLY 26,689 ARE RECORDED.
VIOLATIONS AND RECORDS
In the city of Buenos Aires
Month of July, 1995
| Violations in one day | Violations in one month | Records(*) taken in one month | Percentage according to number of violations | |
| SERIOUS VIOLATIONS (PRIVATE VEHICLES) | ||||
| Crossing with red light | 787,680 | 23,600,000 | 7,429 | 0.315 ‰ |
| Not respecting pedestrian's priority | 1,066,800 | 32,000,000 | 37 | 0.00115 ‰ |
| Not using seat belt | 1,215,000 | 36,500,000 | 1,324 | 0.036 ‰ |
| Children in front seats | 46,200 | 1,400,000 | 60 | 0.042 ‰ |
| Not using helmet (motorbikes/mopeds) | 43,200 | 1,300,000 | 184 | 0.14 ‰ |
| Drink and drive | ? | 25 | ||
| SERIOUS VIOLATIONS (Public transportation - buses) | ||||
| Not coming close to the stop | 540,000 | 16,200,000 | 39 | 0.0024 ‰ |
| Crossing with red light | 194,400 | 5,800,000 | 498 | 0.085 ‰ |
| All violations/records/percentages | 3,893,280 | 116,800,000 | 9,571 | 0.082 ‰ |
Records here included represent a 39% of all serious violations of all kinds made during the month of July, 1995. If the total number of violations of all kinds (not included in this research) would have identical ratio with records taken, we could establish that IN BUENOS AIRES, SOME 300 MILLION SERIOUS VIOLATIONS ARE COMMITTED EACH MONTH, OF WHICH ONLY 24,521 ARE RECORDED.
VIOLATIONS AND RECORDS
In the city of Buenos Aires
Month of April, 1996
| Violations in one day | Violations in one month | Records(*) taken in one month | Percentage according to number of violations | |
| SERIOUS VIOLATIONS (PRIVATE VEHICLES) | ||||
| Crossing with red light | 1,444.080 | 43,300,000/td> | 8,908 | 0.206 ‰ |
| Not respecting pedestrian's priority | 822,960 | 24,700,000 | 37 | 0.00149 ‰ |
| Not using seat belt | 849,800 | 25,500,000 | 1,883 | 0.074 ‰ |
| Children in front seats | 38,060 | 1,100,000 | 75 | 0.068 ‰ |
| Not using helmet (motorbikes/mopeds) | 31,200 | 900,000 | 450 | 0.50 ‰ |
| Drink and drive | ? | 3 | ||
| Speeding | ? | 46 | ||
| No head restraint | ? | 3 | ||
| Racing on public streets | ? | 5 | ||
| Passing another vehicle on the right | ? | 8 | ||
| SERIOUS VIOLATIONS (Public transportation - buses) | ||||
| Not coming close to the stop | 626,000 | 18,800,000 | 76 | 0.004 ‰ |
| Crossing with red light | 269,500 | 8,100,000 | 824 | 0.102 ‰ |
| All violations/records/percentages | 4,081,600 | 122,400,000 | 12,259 | 0.100 ‰ |
If we analyse the total number of violations compared to the number of records taken, an average of one record is taken every 10,000 serious violations observed.
Records counted represent a 45% of all serious violations of all kinds made during the month of April, 1996
If the total number of violations of all kinds (not included in this research) would have identical ratio with records taken, we could establish that IN BUENOS AIRES, SOME 270 MILLION SERIOUS VIOLATIONS ARE COMMITTED EACH MONTH, OF WHICH ONLY 26,811 ARE RECORDED.
If we take a brief look at the data, we will see that the number of serious violations is alarmingly high and has been increasing each year, during these last two years; at least some of them, like crossing with a red light: in two years the number of violations has increased more than 84% in its six digit figure.
The total of serious violations has increased from 1996 to 1997 in 25%, while records taken by police officers have kept insignificant.
Conclusions
The first conclusion is that in Buenos Aires an alarmingly high number of serious traffic violations are committed, which shows a generalized anarchy in traffic causing at least six times more fatalities than in European cities comparable to ours and millions of dollars in material losses, due to accidents in themselves, the amount of time wasted in a chaotic and slow traffic flow, etc.
Secondly, there is a totally disproportioned relation between the number of violations committed and the number of records taken, which shows that practically speaking there are no effective controls and they are, at least, ineffective and almost inexistent.
Thirdly, this ineffectiveness in control acts as a factor that stimulates drivers to commit new violations, as can be clearly seen in the increase of figures recorded for the last two years, in some, maybe the most serious, of violations committed.
We are aware that there is no country in the world where absolutely all violations are punished. It is very difficult to establish which would be the ideal ratio violation/punishment, to consider a control system effective, at least from a numeric point of view.
What we are sure of, and this research clearly shows, is that a control system is effective as long as almost all the population are convinced that someone who commits a serious traffic violation will most probably be prosecuted and punished; and that the fact that in average every driver violates a red light once a day is a symptom that this conviction is absolutely absent and that in Buenos Aires, basically, as well as in the rest of the country, most people are convinced that nothing will happen when they violate basic traffic safety regulations. These facts are clearly showing this kind of thinking, which results in the generalized chaos and accidents and fatalities.
If authorities will not work properly and effectively for the enforcement of traffic regulations, all efforts made for creating awareness and education in the traffic safety field will not be able to yield the expected results in effective and positive changes of behavior in the community, to help protect lives of human beings on roads and streets.
Finally, one more consequence of this lack of control is that the efforts made by Luchemos por la Vida to create awareness about transit risks and teach the population basic life preserving habits, with the purpose of having a safer and more organized traffic system, and avoiding fatalities and injuries, cannot and will not reach total success due to the lack of control and punishment for traffic violations.