Road Traffic Safety in Brazil

As Brazilians continue to migrate to the cities in search of work, more and more neighborhoods are springing up next to the dangerous, high-speed expressways leading into city centers. Every day, twenty-one pedestrians are run over, and two die.

Road Traffic Safety in Brazil Host: Harman’s visiting Dr. Julia Greve at Hospital das Clinicas, the largest hospital in the city. They receive around 600 road crash victims every month, one in five are spinal injuries, the majority young men. Most spend months in hospital and years in rehabilitation. Harman: Why do you think people get these kinds of injuries? Julia Greve: The injuries vary a lot. Here crash with motorcycles are the most frequent. The injuries are mainly upper leg and then head and chest injuries. But there are a huge amount of head and spinal injuries. Host: There’d be even more injuries if Brazil hadn’t made helmets and seatbelts compulsory. Harman: What are the social costs of these accidents on the country? Julia Greve: The total cost of accidents for the country in terms of public health, funeral costs, resources, lost of productions, and medical materials amounts to $22 billion Riyals or $11billion. Edimilson De Oliveira: That was lucky. It was my first time. Harman: So how did you get your injury? Edimilson De Oliveira: I was going to work on my motorbike and a bus made an illegal turn and I crashed into it. Harman: So how has your life changed after this? Edimilson De Oliveira: Everything has changed, now I’m dependent on everyone for everything. Glaucla Loureiro Redondo: I was walking with my daughter and husband on the footpath and a car hit me from behind and hit my right side. I had multiple fractures on the right side of my body and an injury to my head. We know alcohol is the cause of many accidents in Brazil. Many drunk drivers cause many crashes. In my case, I don’t remember because I was unconscious but the police said the driver was very, very drunk and he couldn’t remove the car from the sidewalk. Host: Among 14 to 26 year olds, drink driving and speeding account for three quarters of car accident deaths on Brazil’s roads. Diza Gonzaga set up Vida Urgente after her son, Thiago, lost his life in a late night driving crash. Over 3000 volunteers have joined her, using the Breathalyzer test in bars, to spread the message that alcohol and driving don’t mix. Diza Gonzaga: Our symbol is a butterfly, the green one is given to those who past the test to say they are safe to drive you and those over the alcohol limit receive a red one with the phrase, “I’ve drunk everything, and I want someone to drive me,” and then we look for someone to drive them safely. Female: What’s the limit? Female: Three. Host: But passing the buck is as common in Brazil as it is in India and many other countries. The military police are still the only people allowed to administer Breathalyzer tests to drunk drivers not the local traffic police who are the ones charged with enforcing the national code. Isn’t that Harman wants to know, a drawback? Nancy Schneider: The department of traffic has no power to control those driving under the influence of alcohol. So there’s a little enforcement. This issue falls under the control of the military police. Host: As Brazilians continue to migrate to the cities in search of work, more and more neighborhoods are springing up next to the dangerous, high-speed expressways leading into city centers. Everyday, 21 pedestrians are run over and two die. Eduardo Daros fights for the rights of pedestrians on Sao Paolo’s roads, roads he tells Harman that were designed for vehicles without people in mind. Eduardo Daros: First priority should be given to pedestrians, second priority to public transport and third priority to services, less priority to cars. Our avenues have cars are driving at 60, 65 kilometers per hour and the pedestrian can’t cross. There is no zebra cross, there’s a bus stop on one side and the other side, but no zebra cross in the middle. And then pedestrian how do they get into the bus? They don’t get there by parachuting, they get there by walking. Harman: Do you think the national code has done anything for pedestrians? Eduardo Daros: We should apply the code as it is. We don’t need much more than what is in the code. What we need is enforcement, but politicians in Brazil they have listened to those who are driving their cars and not people in the streets. Host: Everyday an ever growing volume of vehicles bombards and clog-up the city’s arteries in peak times. To relieve congestion and provide public transport, Sao Paolo’s traffic department recently installed eight priority bus lanes. But ironically, crashes increased in these lanes. What, Harman asks, went wrong? Nancy Schneider: As soon as these eight lanes were implemented, the speed and flow of the buses increased a lot but so did the number of accidents involving pedestrians. We need to find a balance between improving bus flow and speeds, and the safety and security of the pedestrian. Host: Like India, Brazil has multiple agencies responsible for traffic safety. The Ministries of Cities, Justice and Transport all share responsibilities for implementing the national traffic code including enforcement Harman: How can better coordination between the various ministries and agencies be done? Alfredo Peres Da Silva: Every country has to deal with this issue whether traffic should stay linked to security or to transport. This discussion will go on forever, that’s the difficulty we have. It’s not a question of deciding, it’s a question realizing that we need to centralize this control. Host: Giving all agencies a role but making one responsible for overall national road safety, similar to other successful systems elsewhere is in Harman’s view, the priority. Harman: It is very important that both these countries to have a central agency that is only responsible for the road safety since this is not a small thing. It is taking a major part of the GDP and has an enormous social cost. So, a centralized agency that monitors and coordinates between all these agencies is very important.