Traffic experts head to Ethiopia
Road deaths reaching AIDS proportions, WHO saysOntario officers to teach radar, Crown to advise on drafting laws
Mar. 2, 2006. 01:00 AM
BOB MITCHELL
STAFF REPORTER
Three senior Ontario law enforcement representatives are heading to Ethiopia to lend their expertise to a country where traffic accidents are so prevalent they may soon surpass AIDS as the leading cause of death.
For every 10,000 vehicles registered in the impoverished African country,128 people die.
"In Ontario, we have a death rate in collisions of about one for every 10,000 registered vehicles, so they have a big problem over there," said OPP Sergeant John McNall, one of three leaving today representing the Canadian branch of the newly formed International Road Safety Academy (IRSA).
Based in Geneva, the non-profit organization arranges and organizes road training sessions around the world.
McNall, along with Peel traffic Sergeant Ken Sluman and Sheilagh Stewart, a senior crown with the Ministry of Attorney General's office, will spend a week in the country's capital of Addis Ababa. They'll be instructing 35 selected traffic officers, who will then teach other local officers traffic enforcement techniques and strategies.
"There are about 170,000 registered vehicles in Ethiopia where we have about 7 million in Ontario," said McNall, who heads the OPP's traffic safety division.
McNall's duty this trip is to teach the Ethiopian traffic officers how to use radar guns. They'll be using 13 used ones donated by London police. They'll also be demonstrating radar devices for possible future purchasing. These devices are on loan by Decatur Electronics and Mega Technical Inc.
"They have speed limits but most of the traffic cops don't even have driving licences and know very little about traffic laws," said former Toronto police officer Ted Holtzheuser, who has organized the fact-finding mission for the academy, which consists of retired and active road safety experts.
"They're taught how to operate their firearm and how to handle civil order. But they get very little instruction in the way of traffic. I recently spent time in Cairo and 95 per cent of their traffic officers are on foot."
Holtzheuser said the trip is expected to be the first of many to various countries for the group. Their role this time is to create enforcement programs. Future trips will involve paramedic and advanced first-aid training.
"Speed is the No. 1 cause of the crashes and there is currently very little being done in the way of speed enforcement," Holtzheuser said. "But many police officers, firefighters and ambulance attendants in these countries have absolutely no first aid training. They often don't even have proper medical kits."
While in Ethiopia, the group will also do an audit to determine how many officers are dedicated to traffic, what type of equipment is being used and what fines are issued and enforced.
"Sometimes the fines end up in the police officer's pocket so we're going to see if we can create a system where there won't be any opportunity for that to happen," Holtzheuser said.
Stewart's role will be to help officials create and draft traffic law legislation.
Experts from the United Nations and World Health Organization estimate road crash deaths in Africa will surpass AIDS deaths within nine years.
"The situation around the world is quite grave," Holtzheuser said. "About 1.2 million people die in car collisions each year and about 30 to 50 million people are injured, whereas about 500,000 are murdered and about 300,000 die in armed conflict."
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