Lebanon's number of road deaths per month reached an all-time high in July and August, despite increased seatbelt use by drivers and front-seat passengers, said a study released on Monday.
The Youth Association for Social Awareness (YASA), a local road safety group, said in its study, cited by the Daily Star, that there had been an increase in road fatalities from an average of 24 per month earlier this year to 45 during each of the past two months.
The figures marked the country’s highest death toll yet, and came despite a sharp increase in the public’s use of seatbelts over the past few weeks, it said.
Prompted by a decree from the interior ministry, police began to issue warnings in early June, enforcing a decree making seatbelts mandatory for drivers and front-seat passengers.
The new law states that drivers must put on their seatbelts before they start their vehicles, and that all belts must be made of synthetic material strong enough to support a three-ton weight.
Nonetheless, although more people are now buckling up, YASA said the law would have little effect on its own, and had to be followed up by other measures.
“It’s wrong to assume that the interior ministry and (the ISF) are capable of solving traffic problems by themselves,” YASA’s general coordinator Ziad Aql told the paper.
Aql said road fatalities would not decrease until other causes of car accidents, such as poor roads, were sufficiently reported and adequately addressed - Albawaba.com
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