Samar Kanafani
Daily Star staff

The Council for Development and Reconstruction and the country’s leading traffic safety group jointly issued  Wednesday a series of recommendations to reduce the amount and seriousness of car accidents near public works.
In a news conference at CDR’s downtown headquarters, members of the Youth Association for Social Awareness (YASA) and council experts agreed the country needs a comprehensive strategy to ensure the safety of drivers and construction workers around construction sites.
“We don’t expect change to come about overnight. Improvement will happen slowly,” said YASA member Clovis Abi Nader, who together with CDR engineer Elie Helou discussed the recommendations with council engineers and members of the media.
Heading the list, which has been prepared during YASA-CDR workshops since April, was a call on the authorities to inform the public ahead of time of upcoming traffic deviations due to road works.
This would allow motorists to reorganize their commute by finding alternative routes, said Clovis Abi Nader, adding that “this would greatly improve drivers’ morale.”
Another recommendation which took center stage at the conference was the need to amend the country’s 40-year-old traffic code, which does not include any safety guidelines for construction sites.
“(The Internal Security Forces, ISF) have difficulty implementing safety regulations when there are gaps in the law,” said YASA president Ziad Aql.
He said the Interior Ministry will “soon” amend the code, which he expected would take the recommendations into account, obliging contractors to account for safety devices, such as signs and cones, in their budgets.
The CDR is already imposing such guidelines on its own hired contractors, which carry out more than 90 percent of the country’s road works, said the council’s vice-president, Karim Yazbek. The council is also beginning to require of contractors a safety strategy and traffic deviation plan, which they must submit for approval and implement for every project they execute.
It was a hazardous construction site that triggered the fatal accident of Ralph Ibrahim, 19, and a female friend in January. The accident began when Ibrahim’s car drove over the steel rim of a car wheel, which was precariously placed on a road near an unmarked construction site.
“A rim has no business being placed in the middle of a construction site,” said Ralph’s sister, Pamela, 17, who became an active YASA member, together with her mother Ilham Ibrahim, following her brother’s death.
“I’ll never forget Ralph and I’ll be behind you all the way because I’ll hold myself personally responsible for anyone else who dies like that,” Pamela told YASA members and CDR experts at the conference.
Also present at the conference were members of the Tunisian Association for Road Safety, who have accompanied YASA to the Public Works and Transport Ministry, the ISF directorate-general and schools on awareness visits since June 5, as part of continuing exchange between the two associations.

Copyright © The Daily Star