Traffic accidents, especially those involving motorcycles, are one of the biggest causes of death and injuries here in Cambodia. Here is some info about traffic crashes in Cambodia which illustrates how hazardous it can be to ride a motorcycle.
- Road traffic crashes caused 1,950 deaths and 14,227 injuries in 2013, costing the nation approximately 337 million USD, 2.1% of its GDP.
- In 2013, motorcycle crashes caused 14 times as many fatalities as malaria, dengue fever, and landmines combined.
- While motorcycle drivers are required by law to wear helmets in Cambodia, until recently no mandatory helmet law existed for passengers, resulting in helmet use rates in 2010 of 65% among drivers and 9% among passengers.
- 69% of road crash fatalities in 2013 were motorcyclists, 62% of whom suffered head injuries.
- 98% of survey respondents support a mandatory helmet law for passengers
The following is a link to a short PSA in Khmer entitled “Protect your passengers’ lives. Make sure they wear helmets.” This is a great video to show to students or community members to demonstrate the importance of wearing a helmet.
And here is another helmet safety PSA “Love your child. Provide a helmet.” which is in Vietnamese but gets its message across without dialogue.
In the past, PCVs have done murals and community outreach on the topic of traffic safety and it is sometimes a topic that youth can educate on as their service projects.
Volunteers have already started addressing traffic safety in their communities. Here are a few examples that are easily replicated:
K6 Greg in Kampot:
Greg and his students did a campaign against drunk driving in their community which you can read about here.
**Download his resources here**
Please Drive Safely – Restaurant Poster
K6 Kat in Kampong Thom:
The Safety Is In my Hands Workshop was conducted over two days at my high school in March 2014. There were 150 students present. This was funded by a SPA grant. I was the only PCV who worked on this project but this could easily be done with multiple PCVs. I contacted the World Health Organization, Mr. Mr. Ratnick Sao at 012-832-308 or saos@wpro.who.int who put me in touch with the National Road Safety Committee. I spoke with the director of that department, Mrs. Sokol Men at 077-777-795 or mensokol@yahoo.com. Mrs. Sokol brought 7 other Khmer presenters from her department to the school and facilitated the workshop. They brought so many free stickers, t-shirts, informational posters, etc for the 150 students and for us to put around our school. My students also facilitated group games and created a skit about the importance of traffic safety in our community. Students were given participation certificates.
As a sustainability component, students were required to break into groups of 10 (total of 15 groups) and create a 15minute lesson that they would teach in their classes to students who did not attend the workshop. I was not there to see this component in person but my students posted pictures on Facebook on their peer-teaching—and it was a success.
5 Idiot-proof steps to put this project together:
- Pick up your phone and call Mr. Ratnick AND Mrs. Sokol to plan a date for presenters to come.
- Follow up your call with an email to Mr. Ratnick AND Mrs. Sokol about the details you discussed.
- Throughout the months (or weeks) to come, keep in contact with Mrs. Sokol every week.
- Carry-out the typical things you do to prepare for a workshop (buy supplies, make certificates, tell students daily to come to the workshop, tell your school director what’s going on, work with your students who are involved with your workshop).
- Do the workshop.
This is a very easy project to complete as I contacted a legitimate organization with amazing Khmer staff.
Presentation Topics by the National Road Safety Committee 
(you can pick the topics):
1- Road Crash Situation in Cambodia (in general)
2- Road Crash Situation in Cambodia for 2012
3-Road Crash Situation in Cambodia for 5 years 2009-2013) 50 min
4- Helmet wearing and benefit of Helmet Wearing 10 min
5- How to select the good quality helmet 10 min
6- Risk factor of non-helmet wearing and drunken driving 50 min
7- Risk factor of drive over speeding 30 min
8-Risk factor of non-seat belt wearing
9- Road Safety Policy and Action Plan
10- Road Traffic Law
**Download her resources here**
Secondary Projects 